Ambassador Nguyen Thi Bich Hue, Vietnamese Permanent Representative to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has lauded the fund’s support to Vietnam over the years and affirmed the Vietnamese Government wants to strengthen cooperation with and contribute more to the fund’s activities.

Ambassador Nguyen Thi Bich Hue (R), Vietnamese Permanent Representative to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) presents her credentials to IFAD President Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo

At a meeting with IFAD President Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo at the fund’s headquarters in Rome, Italy on March 12, Ambassador Hue said that although Vietnam became ineligible for IFAD’s official development assistance (ODA) in 2018, it has faced many challenges.

Climate change has seriously affected the production of many farmers, while their access to credit is limited, she noted.

She proposed the IFAD help Vietnam by creating favourable conditions for the country to continue borrowing soft loans in the future, and expanding cooperation projects across Vietnam.

For his part, the IFAD President lauded Vietnam’s collaboration over the years, holding that the affiliation has helped ensure the efficiency of IFAD-funded projects in the country and the region, including those to upgrade the representative office of the fund in Hanoi into the IFAD Mekong Hub.

Houngbo said that the IFAD has been seeking measures to assist countries graduating from ODA before 2019, helping them to access soft IFAD loans in a certain time.

He praised Vietnam’s proposal to join the South-South Cooperation, expressing his hope that Ambassador Hue will successfully promote the sound partnership between Vietnam and the IFAD.

The IFAD, an agency of the United Nations, was one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference.

Three years after the Rome conference, the fund was set up as an international financial institution in 1977.

The IFAD has 176 member states comprised of developing, middle and high-income countries from across the world. Vietnam joined the fund in 1997.-VNA