Enhance cooperation between Ministry of Construction with World Bank (WB)

The whole working session

At the meeting, Ms. Maria Angelica Sotomayor highly appreciated the effective cooperation relationship between the World Bank and the Ministry of Construction over the years, especially in 2017, the Minister of Construction and the World Bank Country Director in Vietnam signed a Memorandum of Understanding on sustainable infrastructure and urban development partnership, period 2017-2021. This working session aimed to further strengthen cooperation in building and perfecting institutions, policies to improve the capacity of Vietnam's water supply, drainage and wastewater treatment industry.

Currently, the WB is developing a cooperation strategy with Vietnam and the contents of cooperation with the Ministry of Construction will be quickly added and updated to this strategy.

In area of water supply and drainage, Ms. Maria Angelica Sotomayor emphasized the importance of the private sector. She also said, WB had many experts on water supply and global sanitation, the water economy who have worked in many countries in Latin America where under the process of rapid urbanization like Vietnam, willing to share experiences and support Vietnam in sustainable development of water supply and drainage sector.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister Nguyen Tuong Van highly appreciated the cooperation and support of the World Bank to the Ministry of Construction over the years, especially in the fields of technical infrastructure, urban development, water supply and drainage.

Rapid urbanization process as well as the impact of climate change have created significant challenges for the water supply and drainage sector. As a result, in addition to promoting domestic resources, the Ministry of Construction is very interested in expanding cooperation with international organizations, learning experiences of countries around the world to build and perfect institutions, policies and laws towards capacity building and sustainable development of Vietnam's water supply and drainage industry, said Deputy Minister Van.

In 2023, the Ministry of Construction will focus on completing and submitting to the Government a proposal to develop a Law on Water Supply and Drainage. Deputy Minister Nguyen Tuong Van desired that the WB actively paid attention and supported the MoC to implement the related contents; focused on sharing international experiences and those of countries with similar conditions to Vietnam; provided experts to support the MoC in developing and completing the proposal for the development of the Law on Water Supply and Drainage and related works.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Tuong Van and Ms. Maria Angelica Sotomayor agreed to appoint focal points to exchange and set up specific working programs in order to urgently implement the agreed contents at this working session.