Belgian Technical Cooperation in Vietnam
 Vietnam
The Vietnamese economy continues to grow rapidly despite the global
economic slowdown. Its average annual GDP increase (more than 4%
over the past 5 years) is among the highest of the region. In addition
Vietnam is considered as one of the best performing countries in
poverty reduction. In 2001 Vietnam started to develop a Comprehensive
Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy to consolidate and further
improve results.
Belgium - Vietnam bilateral cooperation
The direct bilateral cooperation between Belgium and Vietnam focuses
on the poor, both in rural and in urban settings, with gender and
environment as two major cross-cutting themes.
In Ho Chi Minh City, BTC is implementing a sanitation
and urban upgrading project in the Tan Hoa - Lo Gom canal basin.
This project aims to improve the living conditions of the population
that lives along this canal and deals with such issues as pollution,
solid waste, environmental degradation, urban development and resettlement.
In 2001 a study was launched to formulate appropriate solutions
for the total population (estimated at 700,000) of the catchment
area of this canal.
The most important rural development programme of BTC is the implementation
of the second phase of a gender project in collaboration
with the Vietnam Women's Union (a
mass organisation of 12 million members). The project aims to strengthen
the capacity of the Women's Union to manage credit and savings programmes
and to provide credit for poor women in 17 provinces of Vietnam.
Since the beginning of the project in 1997, about 40,000 loans have
been allocated with a repayment rate greater than 99%.
BTC has implemented two projects promoting the dairy sector around
Hanoi and
Ho Chi Minh City. The Vietnamese dairy sector is still relatively
new, but after a slow start the sector has rapidly developed and
these two projects have played an important role in this evolution.
The project around Hanoi came to an end in 2001 and the project
around Ho Chi Minh City is currently phasing out. However the Vietnamese
government has taken the necessary steps to guarantee further success
and a new project around Hanoi is currently being prepared.
The teacher training project in
7 remote provinces in northern Vietnam was in the picture in
2001. In these poor and traditionally backward provinces, the new
national education policy based on the methodology of active teaching
and learning, is more advanced in its application than most other
provinces. This should contribute to improve the quality of education
in a country already renowned for its low illiteracy rate.
BTC is also supporting textile research institutes
and a survey for a port terminal in Vung Tau.
Finally, agreements between Vietnam and Belgium signed in
2001 for a multisectoral rural development
project in Nghe An province and a project for administrative
reform in Can Tho province. These projects effectively started
in 2002.
page last updated:14/01/03
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