ADB lends $165 million to improve education, infrastructure in disadvantaged regions
VGP - The Vietnamese Government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on January 23 signed an agreement on $165 million loans for an educational project for ethnic minorities in the poorest regions and investment in rural infrastructure for six selected provinces in the central region.
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The first loan of $80 million will be spent on the second phase of a project to improve lower secondary education of poor ethnic minorities in several disadvantaged areas and typhoon-hit coastal areas.
The second phase was developed on the success of the first phase with several new innovations and parts, including region-based textbooks, a new approach on training teachers with further attention to life skills education, a network of teachers, schools and model libraries and an online training program for teachers and education workers.
The project will begin at the beginning of 2015 till 2021, aiming to increase the real enrolment rate of lower secondary education in the targeted areas by 5% by 2020 through building660 classrooms, 350 semi-boarding facilities, 250 houses for teachers, and 344 new schools, and the training of some 24,000 teachers.
The second loan of $85 million will be added to finance for an integrated rural development infrastructure project, which was approved by the ADB in 2007. The bank provided $90 million in the project’s total investment of $168.17 million.
The project’s initial targets were critical infrastructure in 13 provinces in the central region, including rural transportation and irrigation systems, rural markets, and safe water supply coastal facilities.
By August 2014, the project has achieved its set targets, contributing to fulfilling targets of infrastructure development, agricultural production improvement, job creation, public service access and mitigation of natural disasters.
However, there’s much to do to minimize obstacles in infrastructure to production, plant diversification and economic growth.
The additional finance will support the improvement and expansion of irrigation infrastructure in Binh Dinh, Binh Thuan, Ha Tinh, Ninh Thuan, Phu Yen and Thua Thien-Hue provinces within four years based on positive outcomes of the initial project in these localities.
By Vien Nhu
