Hanoi (VNA) – The Japan InternationalCooperation Agency (JICA) is proud to be part of Vietnam’s socio-economicdevelopment progress, said Chief Representative of JICA in Vietnam ShimizuAkira in an exclusive interview with the Vietnam News Agency (VNA).

The interview focuses on the JICA Chief Representative’sviews on Vietnam’s recent economic achievements and Vietnam – Japan cooperativerelations via official development assistance (ODA) projects. Following is the extractof the interview.

Reporter: What are your assessments of Vietnam’s achievements ineconomic development since JICA restarted ODA operations in Vietnam in 1992?

Mr Shimizu Akira:Vietnam’s economic success is an inspiring development story. Let’s look atsome figures over the period: GDP has been more than 20 times bigger and GDPper capita has been almost 20 times higher. From an embargoed economy, Vietnamhas opened up and now has a trade value at two times of the GDP, and become oneof the most open economies in the world. During the process, tens of millionsof people have escaped from poverty and thrived for prosperity and betteropportunities in lives.

I think the figures speak so much about the energy, dynamicsand potentials of your country: the young and skillful labor force, the dynamicenterprises and the more improved business and investment climate that yourGovernment has been trying to provide during the past years. It is veryimpressive that at present, Vietnam is doing very well for preventing covid-19outbreak while keeping the economy going. And JICA is very proud to contributea part in the process.

Reporter: In a recent book, the World Bank has recognised Vietnam asone of the most successful emerging economies, what do you think about thisassessment?

Mr Shimizu Akira:I agree with the assessment. As the World Bank assessed, one of the key factorsof Vietnam’s economic success was its transition from a centrally planned to amarket economy.

Besides this, from my personal viewpoint, I think it owesmuch to the potential of Vietnamese people, such as hard working and flexiblemind. Attitude while respecting history, also look forward to make positivehistory with the other countries are also one of a key factors.

JICA has been cooperating with Vietnam in a variety offields aiming at its smooth transition to market economy, and providingtechnical assistance tailored to the stage of economic development for over decades.For example, JICA supported various institutional reforms in accordance withpolicy frameworks under policy-based loans of Poverty Reduction Support Credit(PRSC) and following Economic Management and Competitiveness Credit (EMCC),both of which are syndicated loans with the World Bank. We highly evaluateoutstanding achievements backed by Vietnam’s continuous efforts under thesepolicy frameworks.

Reporter: You said JICA is proud to contribute in the progress ofVietnam’s development. Could you please tell us more about this? And what areJICA’s evaluations on Vietnamese policies in regard to ODA over the past years?

Mr Shimizu Akira:We have been working closely with the Government in various projects andprograms for bringing in higher living standard and more economic opportunitiesfor all Vietnamese people.

The operation of JICA aims at improvement of both hard andsoft socio-economic infrastructures. We work with various Vietnamese agenciesfor capacity development of the officials, efficient and effective stategovernance, better delivery of public services, improvement of human resources,etc. In addition, we provide financing for various important infrastructureprojects in transport, energy, urban development, agriculture, etc. Many JapaneseODA projects have served as catalyst factors for inviting private investment.At present, Vietnam is among top five of the largest recipients of Japanese ODAin the world.

One thing I would like to emphasize here, that JICA cannotsuccessfully implement all the projects and programs without the cooperationand trust of our Vietnamese counterpart agencies. In this regard, I believethat the ODA policies have functioned well in terms of creating an enabling andfacilitating environment for ODA attraction and use. However, I think Vietnamcan even do better, e.g. further streamline administrative procedures to avoidproject delay (which is quite common), and narrow the gap between domesticregulations and good international practices in procurement, contractmanagement, taxation issues and so on. These efforts not only promote betteruse of ODA but also development of the market economy which private sector willultimately benefit, which leads to further promotion of Foreign DirectInvestment.

Reporter: In general, please kindly highlight JICA's achievements inVietnam over the past years?

Mr Shimizu Akira:In recent years, Japan’s ODA share over the total ODA to Vietnam exceeds 30percent and Vietnam has been one of the biggest recipient countries of Japan’sODA in comparison to the rest of the whole world. In five years between 2014and 2018, the total amount of loan, technical cooperation and grant aid hasaccumulated up to 5,324 billion JPY, 40 billion JPY and 73 hundred million JPY,respectively.

The first pillar is Promotion of Economic Growth andStrengthening International Competitiveness, which aims to support to improvethe market economy system. JICA’s support to Vietnam under this pillar inrecent years continue to focus on financial reform and state-owned enterprisesreform, infrastructure development (road, bridges, urban transport) as well asto strengthen industrial competitiveness and human resource development. Someout of the numerous projects effectively being implemented under this Pillarare: the “Ho Chi Minh City Urban Railway Construction Project (Line 1), whichwill be the first underground metro system currently under construction; the“Lach Huyen Port Infrastructure Construction Project,” which was the first PPPcollaboration using Yen Loan opened in 2018; and the “Vietnam-Japan University(VJU)”, which is a joint creation of both countries and opened in 2016 inHanoi. Recently, we positioned agriculture as the key issue in this pillar aswell, as we are all aware that Vietnam is a major agricultural country.

The second pillar, Response to fragility, supports toaddress emerging issues caused by rapid urbanization, natural disasters andclimate change and to develop the systems in the fields of health-care sectorand social security etc. JICA has been providing cooperation for adaptation andmitigation measures for climate change in addition to support in policyformulation and enforcement, supporting HCMC and Hanoi with water environmentimprovement for flood damage prevention; helping Ben Tre province with watermanagement to protect agriculture from salinity intrusion during dry season.

In terms of healthcare and social security, for a long time,we have been closely collaborating with top institutes and hospitals such asNational Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology (NIHE), Bach Mai, Cho Ray andHue Central hospital, which the result contributed much in controlling COVID-19pandemic. Moreover, projects such as Vaccine production facilities of POLYVACor insurance provider payment methods and basic health service have helpedVietnam to address the pending issues in health care and social security.

Under “Good Governance”-the 3rd pillar, JICA continues toprovide training to government officials, to support developing training curriculumsand texts for legal professionals (judges, prosecutors and lawyers), to promoteE-Government and to strengthen the capacity of the Office of the NationalAssembly of Vietnam. These interventions have helped to strengthen thegovernance, enhancing capacity of improving and executing the legal system,ensure justice, fairness, neutrality and transparency of the governance.

JICA’s focus in transparency is not only in the governancesector, but also in the economic section. Supporting in legislation and fairpractices in competition law, human resource development in the securitysector, and strengthening the corporate governance will help to lead theinvestment from foreign countries.

Reporter: Global economy is currently facing challenges of the COVID-19pandemic. In that context, Vietnam and Japan are both significantly affected.Please kindly advise if JICA will adopt new forms of cooperation in order toadapt to the current "new normal" state?

Mr Shimizu Akira:As I said above, in the context of COVID-19 spreading, the society has slightlychanged all over the world. JICA is going along with the same policy of thegovernment of Vietnam in order to adapt to the current “new normal” state.

Based on 3 pillars’ cooperation, JICA is implementing projectsto prevent infectious diseases in health sector and to promote economic growthby explaining the Vietnamese Government to enhance public investment, in orderto stimulate the country’s private sector.

We also started reviewing the outcomes of some of theon-going and completed projects, which the influence of COVID-19 was notpre-requisite, so that we can be able to acquire the same results under theCOVID-19 situation.

Thank you!