(CPV) - World Bank Vice President for concessional finance and global partnerships, Mr Axel van Trotsenburg, met with Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai in Hanoi on June 19 to discuss ways to further strengthen the Vietnam-World Bank partnership.

Vice Minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh, Minister of Finance Vuong Dinh Hue, and Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Van Binh also met him in advance.

“Vietnam represents an important development success story. Our goal is to continue to find ways to support Vietnam as it works to meeting its development challenges”, said Mr. van Trotsenburg, who is responsible for the International Development Association (IDA) – the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries.

Photo: chinhphu.vn

IDA places a special focus on the critical development themes of climate change, gender, crises (related to food and natural disasters, for example), and conflict-affected and fragile states.

Vietnam has successfully reduced its poverty rate from 58 % in 1993 to 14.5 % in 2008, and real income has grown by 7.3 % per year over the last 10 years. The country has registered striking gains in education as well as in providing electricity for city and rural residents.

IDA has contributed to this success through finance for economic reforms, agriculture, infrastructure, health programs, and schools, among other things. It has provided Vietnam with 13.2 billion USD in interest-free credits, grants, and guarantees.

Vietnam's effective use of IDA financing to produce strong development results contributed to successful replenishment of IDA's pool of funds available for the period of July 2011 - June 2014.

Mr. van Trotsenburg discussed the future strategy for IDA overall as well as specifically for Vietnam.

“As Vietnam continues to move forward along its development path, IDA is seeking new ways to remain a committed development partner to the country", added him./.