Da Nang (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen XuanPhuc had a meeting with World Bank (WB) Vice President for East Asia andPacific Victoria Kwakwa on November 7 on the sidelines of the ongoing APECEconomic Leaders’ Week in the central city of Da Nang.

Highlighting the effective cooperation between Vietnamand the World Bank over the past years, the PM noted that in its Vietnam 2035Report released in 2016, the WB gave positive assessments of Vietnam in financeand other fields.

Vietnam always highly values the position of the WB ininternational and regional forums, he said.

Victoria Kwakwa expressed her delight to come back to Vietnam and continue thelender’s cooperation activities in the country. She also showed her impressionof Vietnam’s economic growth in 2017, making it a destination of foreigninvestors.

The year of 2017 marks 20 years of the economicrecession in 1997, she noted, saying that she hopes Vietnam will speed up riskevaluation and financial system restructuring and make new breakthrough in baddebt settlement. The WB is always willing to support Vietnam in the work aswell as the implementation of agenda boosting inclusiveness of the financialsystem.

Amidst the high demand of capital for infrastructuredevelopment of Vietnam, the bank hopes to cooperate with the country in mobilisingresources through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and building other mechanismsto attract investment from the private sector.

Vietnam should introduce major projects to call forinvestment, she advised, adding that WB can support the country in a number ofprojects, including the North-South Expressway, Long Thanh InternationalAirport, and the upgrade of Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

The WB is also ready to assist Vietnam in designingstrategic solutions to deal with problems in accessing loans and avoid the situationwhere public debt is likely to hit its ceiling, she declared.

Lauding Kwakwa’s suggestion, PM Phuc said that Vietnamhas set the public debt ceiling of lower than 65 percent of the GDP, addingthis is a tough goal requiring the country to boost GDP growth and choose toinvest in practical important projects. He also stressed the need to apply the PPPmodel, calling the WB to cooperate in building institutional grounds to improvethe effectiveness of the mechanism.

The PM stressed that the bank’s Country PartnershipFramework in the 2017-2022 period is important to shape affiliations betweenVietnam and the lender in the next five years, focusing on inclusiveness andencouraging the private sector’s involvement, human resources development,environmental protection and climate change response.

Highlighting the significance of mitigating climatechange impacts, especially in the Mekong Delta region, the Government leadersaid he hopes the WB will assist Vietnam in finance and strategic policyconsultations in the field.-VNA