WB chief praises Vietnam's fight against poverty

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HANOI, Aug 7 (AFP): World Bank President Robert Zoellick was today due to visit an aid project in communist Vietnam, whose fight against poverty he praised as a "tremendous success story."
Zoellick, on his first Asia trip since taking office last month, was due to visit a bank-funded Hanoi training programme for orphans and disabled youths and also meet government and business leaders in the capital.
On a two-day visit, Zoellick Monday congratulated his host country on its development path from a war-shattered command economy to emerging tiger status, and for efforts to share the new wealth with the rural poor.
Vietnam-a low-income country of 84 million people that saw economic growth of 8.2 per cent last year-has been hailed for cutting poverty from nearly 60 per cent in the early 1990s to less than 20 per cent now.
"One aspect that is particularly impressive is that, in addition to high growth, the government has tried to expand the benefits throughout the country, including the rural poor," said Zoellick after a trip to a countryside project.
But the World Bank president also cautioned that Vietnam now "needs to build the institutions for the future," which included "improving governance, transparency, rule of law, financial systems."
Vietnam, a one-party communist state that joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
in January, has introduced scores of WTO-compliant laws and is seeking to reform institutions such as the central bank.
But many foreign investors have complained of red tape, corruption and a lack of legal certainty and transparency in the rules for doing business.
Zoellick said he and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung discussed how the bank could help Hanoi become a middle-income country by 2010, with per capita gross domestic product of more than 1,000 dollars a year.
"This includes strengthening public institutions, helping social development, investing in infrastructure, building the private sector," said Zoellick, a former US trade representative.
The World Bank in February said it planned to lend Vietnam at least four billion dollars over the next five years, but Zoellick said it could bring more loans and generate investments through its private sector arm.
The World Bank has also urged Vietnam to tackle corruption, a problem highlighted by a scandal in a transport ministry road-building unit known as project management unit (PMU) 18, some of whose officials are now on trial.