VietNamNet Bridge – The recent quake, tsunami and nuclear incident in Japan had rung alarm bells for Viet Nam, said Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai during his working visit to Japan that ended yesterday, May 29.

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai. (Source: AFP/VNA)

Within the framework of the 17th International Conference on the Future of Asia, the Vietnamese delegation worked with Japanese leaders and officials of various ministries and major economic organisations during the five-day visit.

At the meetings, Hai affirmed that as a strategic partner of Japan Viet Nam would always support and assist the Japanese Government and people to rebuild their economy and infrastructure destroyed by natural disasters.

During the working sessions with the Japanese ministries, the two sides discussed continuing co-operation programmes related to Japanese official development assistance (ODA).

Although Japan was facing many difficulties, Japan had pledged to maintain the volume of ODA for Viet Nam, Hai said. Last year it provided 150 billion JPY (US$1.86 billion) in this form of aid.

Regarding solutions to cope with climate change, Hai said Viet Nam was co-ordinating closely with other nations worldwide, including Japan, to carry out projects to prevent, adapt and mitigate impacts of climate change and natural disasters on the country.

In collaboration with Japan and other nations, Viet Nam had embarked on 20 projects and programmes with a combined funding of $1.3 billion to deploy measure to cope with natural calamities. Some 10 other projects worth $1.3 billion will be implemented in the future.

Hai also praised the efforts and proactive measures the Japanese government and people and international organisations had taken to overcome the aftermath of the nuclear incident, quake and tsunami which happened more than two months ago.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News