Minister Pham Hong Ha met and worked with Mr Ousmane Odione – Country Director of the World Bank (WB) in Vietnam on the preparation for the Safe Water Supply Project in the Mekong Delta (Project) on May 13th at the MoC headquarters.
The whole working session
Minister Pham Hong Ha expressed his pleasure to work with Mr.Ousmane Odione and the WB’s working group in Vietnam and highly appreciated WB’s interest and efforts in helping Vietnam to promote the Safe Water Supply Project in the Mekong Delta.
According to Minister Pham Hong Ha, two sides have had many discussions and implemented many preparations for the Project to reach a relatively high consensus of Vietnam's ministries, branches and localities on a number of contents such as the necessity to invest in the goal of safe water supply in the Mekong Delta, and the selection the water supply plan and investment scale, specific investment plan of the whole Project and of each of the 7 provinces in the Mekong Delta region, the quality of project preparation to meet the requirements.
Minister Pham Hong Ha spoke at the working session
“This is the big Project so that need to consider the issues of financial, support policies of the state, policies on water prices... to ensure that the water supply companies are able to repay the loan of the WB and suitable with the payment ability of the water users. The other issues also need to be considered such as the ability to attract the participation of private investors sector and the technology of treating brackish water to make fresh water”, said Minister Pham Hong Ha.
At the meeting, Mr Ousmane Odione agreed with the comments of Minister Pham Hong Ha on the necessity and complexity of the project, expressed his desire to accompany and be willing to support Ministry of Construction in implementing this Project.
The Country Director of the World Bank in Vietnam - Ousmane Odione at the working session
Minister Pham Hong Ha and Mr Ousmane Odione discussed the next steps of project preparation and affirmed that two sides would to have discussions to report the Prime Minister on the Project proposal and the Project feasibility report to submit to WB leaders for approval by the end of this year.
Written by: Minh Tuan
Translated by: Mai Anh