Mr. Sugano Yuichi, Chief Representative of the Vietnam Office of JICA

Over the past 30 years, Japan has always been the largest ODA donor to Vietnam. Could you share some of the outstanding achievements of this cooperation in recent times?

Typical examples of cooperation in the field of transportation that Vietnamese people can clearly feel such as the gateway from the new international terminal of Noi Bai airport to Nhat Tan bridge, the East-West Highway in Ho Chi Minh City, the Hai Van tunnel connecting Da Nang and Hue and the Can Tho bridge.

Although it is difficult to see the achievements of technical cooperation with the naked eye, it can be said that Japan has supported Vietnam from building a national transportation development strategy to planning large projects with high priority as well as helping to develop human resources and improve planning capacity for relevant agencies, ministries and sectors of Vietnam.

In addition, there are cooperation projects in the fields of health, law, human resource training, etc.

In Japan's fiscal year from April 2023 to March 2024, we signed loans totaling 102.2 billion yen, equivalent to 678 million USD (excluding investment funding for the private sector), the highest level since 2017.

Technical cooperation reached 5.2 billion yen (equivalent to 35 million USD), the largest scale in the world in the same fiscal year. Non-refundable aid reached 1.1 billion yen (equivalent to 7.5 million USD) in committed capital.

The above programs and projects have timely supported Vietnam's economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic and contributed to both economic infrastructure and human resource development, creating a foundation for economic growth in the medium and long term. Japanese people and businesses continue to show great interest in Vietnam - a country that has continuously maintained stable and sustainable growth.

Vietnam is the leading partner among JICA’s cooperating programs, sending 45 Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, 36 business investment projects of Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of sustainable development (SDGs), 24 grassroots technical cooperation projects (Development Partnership Program).

In addition, Vietnam also ranked secondly worldwide with 9 projects under JICA's "Investment Financing for the Private Sector" program.

Could you mention difficulties or challenges in implementing ODA projects in recent years, sir?

JICA implements cooperation programs for developing countries globally, including technical cooperation, non-refundable aid, yen loans and cooperation with people's participation such as sending volunteers.

However, each country/region has a different culture, customs, way of thinking and level of development, so it is not easy to build mutual trust, leading to the success of ODA projects.

To solve this problem, JICA has had initiatives such as sending Japanese experts and volunteers to host countries, inviting government officials of other countries to Japan to share about Japanese technology, way of thinking, customs and practices... thereby building and enhancing mutual understanding.

At the same time, Japan believes that efforts to implement projects with concrete results such as improving and enhancing people's lives through infrastructure development will contribute to building relationships of trust with many countries.

Could you share your upcoming plans in implementing ODA projects in Vietnam?

JICA Vietnam will focus on three priority areas, including high-quality growth, supporting vulnerable groups and human resource development.

In particular, regarding “high-quality growth”, JICA is implementing the construction of the Yen Xa wastewater treatment plant, the largest in Hanoi, which is expected to be completed in the near future.

In addition, the Metro Line 1 project in Ho Chi Minh City, which has attracted much attention, has also begun testing and Ho Chi Minh City is urgently preparing to put this urban railway line into operation soon.

JICA hopes that Metro Line 1 will become an important means of transportation for people, contributing to reducing carbon emissions by reducing traffic congestion.

Next, in the pillar of “support for vulnerable groups”, we are implementing a technical cooperation project related to landslide response measures in the Northern region.

Technical cooperation is being implemented in the agricultural sector to strengthen the value chain of safe crops, deploying human resources towards the goal of improving healthcare services in remote areas.

The final pillar is “human resource development”, which is marked by the 10th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam - Japan University in 2024. We will continue to cooperate with the University to develop and train human resources to bridge the gap between Japan and Vietnam.

2024 is considered a year of many fluctuations due to the influence of the world context. In your opinion, how do cooperation activities need to be innovated to adapt?

We have received new demands from Vietnam such as human resource development in the semiconductor sector, natural disaster prevention, solutions to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, responding to the problem of population aging, supporting to overcome the damage caused by the recent storm No. 3... to develop the economy stably and protect people amid the global socio-eco fluctuation.

To meet these demands, we find it important to flexibly expand and change the scope of cooperation through promoting existing cooperation and networks with Vietnam without necessarily forming new projects from scratch.

In addition, in order to optimize cooperative efficiency, there should be a flexible coordination between aid agencies and the Vietnamese Government to improve the environment for ODA projects so that current problems can be handled smoothly while new cooperative areas are also opened up.

Thank you very much!