ADB Vows Continued Support Vietnam in Green Transition, Food Security
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will continue working with the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to support the country’s climate change response, green transition, food security, and sustainable and responsible food production, an executive has said.
Mr. Winfried Wicklein, deputy director general of the Southeast Asia Department at ADB, made the affirmation at a meeting with Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Hoang Hiep on January 23.
He informed that ADB’s Vietnam Country Partnership Strategy (2023-2026) focuses on two pillars of green transition and private sector development, with a commitment of $2.5 billion-$3 billion. Among 23 projects in the strategy, over half are in the agricultural sector.
Regarding Vietnam’s net-zero goal by 2050, ADB has worked with the MARD to build four projects and will ink two more on building climate-resilient infrastructure for ethnic minority people and investing in irrigation in response to climate change.
In the time to come, ADB will add more agricultural officials to the ADB Vietnam office to increase support and boost cooperation, the executive informed.
Deputy Minister Hiep, for his part, spoke highly of ADB’s strategy, technical, and financial support for the MARD in the last 13 years, with 12 projects totaling VND23.8 trillion ($991.66 million), including VND19.03 trillion of loans.
Mr. Hiep proposed ADB consider supporting Vietnam’s scheme on developing one million hectares of high-quality low-emission paddy via both soft loans and technical assistance.
Besides, he sought ADB’s support to implement the national action plan on transforming the food system in the transparent, responsible, and sustainable orientations by 2030 and a plan on reducing greenhouse gas emission by 2030, with a vision to 2050.