France will fund a social housing project in Ho Chi Minh City with a 20 million euro (US$29 million) loan under an agreement signed Thursday between the Ministry of Finance and the French Development Agency (AFD). 

The loan will be given to the state-owned Ho Chi Minh Finance and Investment Company (HFIC) as part of a EUR96 million project to build houses and educational establishments and to improve hospitals and the capacity of waste treatment in the southern hub.

The remaining funds will come from state-owned agencies and the private sector.

In 2006, AFD was the first investor to grant a credit line of 30 million euros to HFIC for projects in education, health, environment protection another social housing. The housing project benefited 10,000 people.

Housing is a major problem in HCMC that will have an estimated 10 million residents by 2025.

The total official development assistance (ODA) commitments made by AFD to Vietnam so far amounts to around 1.050 billion euros.