By Kim Tong-hyung
HANOI ― Korea will offer $200 million in aid to Vietnam to help the country build a new bridge in the Mekong Delta region, the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank) said Thursday.
The Korean export credit agency is one of the financial backers of the $750 million project that also include the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Australia’s AusAid.
Eximbank said Korea’s economic development cooperation fund (EDCF) will be used to build a 3-kilometer cable-stayed bridge near the Vam Cong area of the Mekong River. AusAid will provide $130 million to build another bridge in the nearby Cao Lanh area, while ADB will inject $220 million to build a 15.7-kilometer highway connecting the two bridges.
Korea’s spending of $200 million represents the largest assistance ever supported by the EDCF.
The massive infrastructure project, dubbed as the Central Mekong Delta Region Connectivity Project, will allow Vietnam more stable transport of rice, its major export item, and jolt tourism and trade in the region, Korean government officials said. The Mekong Delta Region produces more than 80 percent of the rice exported by Vietnam.
Korean Strategy and Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda participated in the signing ceremony for the project, which was held on the sidelines of the annual ADB conference here.
``Currently, Vietnam only has one highway, the National Highway No. 1 (NH1A), connecting its economic center of Ho Chi Minh with the Mekong Delta Region and its southern coastal areas. Transport has been particularly poor in the Vam Cong section, with locals relying on ferries to move up and down the Hau River and other branches of the Mekong River,’’ a Korea Eximbank official said.
``The establishing of the two bridges and the new highway that connects the two regions will greatly help to meet the transport and logistics demand in the country’s southern area.’’