The recent quake, tsunami and nuclear
incident in Japan had rung alarm bells for Viet Nam, said Vietnamese Deputy
Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai during his working visit to Japan that ended
yesterday, May 29.

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai. (Source: AFP/VNA)

Hai said
that over the past 10-15 years Viet Nam had lost 1-2 per cent of its GDP and
about 500 people died each year from natural disasters.

Within
the framework of the 17th International Conference on the Future of Asia, the
Vietnamese delegation worked with Japanese leaders and officials of various
ministries and major economic organisations during the five-day visit.

At the
meetings, Hai affirmed that as a strategic partner of Japan Viet Nam would
always support and assist the Japanese Government and people to rebuild their
economy and infrastructure destroyed by natural disasters.

During
the working sessions with the Japanese ministries, the two sides discussed
continuing co-operation programmes related to Japanese official development
assistance (ODA).

Although
Japan was facing many difficulties, Japan had pledged to maintain the volume of
ODA for Viet Nam, Hai said. Last year it provided 150 billion JPY (US$1.86
billion) in this form of aid.

Regarding solutions to cope with climate change, Hai said Viet Nam was co-ordinating
closely with other nations worldwide, including Japan, to carry out projects to
prevent, adapt and mitigate impacts of climate change and natural disasters on
the country.

In
collaboration with Japan and other nations, Viet Nam had embarked on 20 projects
and programmes with a combined funding of $1.3 billion to deploy measure to cope
with natural calamities. Some 10 other projects worth $1.3 billion will be
implemented in the future.

Hai also
praised the efforts and proactive measures the Japanese government and people
and international organisations had taken to overcome the aftermath of the
nuclear incident, quake and tsunami which happened more than two months ago.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News