A view of part of HCM City, the biggest business hub in Vietnam (Photo: VNA)These two operations are designed to support thecentral government and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s biggest business hub, intheir efforts to improve urban management and promote a recovery that isinclusive, digitally transformative, and sustainable.
Carolyn Turk, WB Country Director for Vietnam,said: “The country must not only manage the immediate effects associatedwith the pandemic, but also build the foundations for a green recovery in thelonger-term.”
The first operation, worth 221.5 million USD,focuses on policy actions that will make the recovery more inclusive, throughsupport to childcare, mobile money, e-governance, and renewable energy.
By improving access to affordable and qualitychildcare, this project will help tackle one of the greatest barriers to women’sworkplace equality in industrial parks. Support for the adoption of mobilemoney is aimed at the increased use of financial services among unbankedhouseholds, which remain the majority in the country.
Efforts to develop e-governance will helpfacilitate a digitally-transformative recovery in the country and will lead tothe provision of more efficient and comprehensive public services forVietnamese citizens and firms. Meanwhile, increased uptake of renewable energywill assist the country in prioritising solar-power projects as greener, lesscarbon-intensive alternatives to coal, according to the WB.
It noted that the second operation, in theamount of 100 million USD, will aid HCM City in promoting the use ofintegrated and transparent spatial information for urban management. Thisactivity is designed to strengthen the management of public assets andliabilities, while simultaneously enhancing the delivery of priority municipalservices - three central elements for efficiently governing a modern city.
The reforms aimed at streamlining businessregistration procedures and providing better access to planning informationwill help improve the city’s business environment, which, in turn will, attractprivate participation, boost productivity gains, and create jobs. By enhancingthe effective management of municipal public debt and assets, the operation isexpected to help increase fiscal efficiency and generate additional revenueover time.
Citizens will benefit from higher-qualitymunicipal services in the long run, following reforms to promote competitiveand transparent procedures in the transport and real estate sectors.
Furthermore, this operation will help HCM Citymitigate climate vulnerabilities, through improved transparency on climate-informedland zoning, expanded drainage coverage, and the expected modal shift fromprivate transport to less carbon-intensive public transport. It will alsopromote gender equity by encouraging the use of public transport by women andgirls through better connectivity and personal safety, the WB said.
Financing for the national DPO comes from theInternational Development Association (IDA) while that for the HCM City DPOhails from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)./.
VNA
