Vietnam

When and where?

Wednesday, 16th May at 6 pm, at l’Espace, 24 Trang Tien, Hanoi

The issue of water and sanitation

It is a major international challenge. It has direct impacts on health, the environment, poverty reduction and also on gender equality. In 2000, 193 States pledged to halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This promise has been recalled this year during the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille “The time for solutions”. Vietnam has made significant progress to reach the MDGs: in 2010, 83% of rural population had access to water, instead of 30% in 1990. Vietnam however is facing huge challenges because, of the growing needs in water resources to meet industrial, agricultural or urban demand. The impact of the climate change is likely to weaken the existing balance.

France's commitment

Since 1997, France, through different financial cooperation fools (AFD and French Treasury) has implemented 30 projects in water and sanitation, mobilizing more than €350m to accompany Vietnamese authorities in this sector. AFD has supported projects aiming to better share, distribute and control the water of the Dong Nai River, the Red River or the Mekong Delta. AFD has also funded a project to extend and upgrade the water distribution systems of several cities in the Mekong Delta. Since 1997, AFD has implemented 13 projects in water and sanitation, mobilizing more than €270m. 

The French Treasury has financed several projects for water and wastewater treatment in different provinces and cities in Vietnam representing €75m commitments, and has recently supported a project on integrated basin management for Dong Nai River. French stakeholders in the water and sanitation (Stakeholders in integrated basin management, Local/regional authorities, NGOs, Water professionals, Research and development institutes) are involved in the promotion of concerted approaches in the countries where it operates.

The movie "A Thirsty World"

“A Thirsty World” was launched at the 6th World Water Forum. Filmed in more than 20 countries, it introduces us to this fascinating and mysterious resource, the WATER, thanks to spectacular scenes including in some remote areas. It shows us some of the most beautiful sceneries on our Earth: lakes or rivers, marshes drawn by water for ages. It proposes reports that let expressed people who get involved and innovate, in order to bring water where it is missing, to use it more intelligently, to purify it or even better to stop pollute this resource.
 

The proposals made by the study aim to reduce the average cost of migrant remittances and to optimize their impact on the development of African countries. They specifically focus on improving linked bank accounts (dual bank accounts for migrants in their country of residence and in their home country with activities coordinated between the banks of both countries), the development of innovative financial products, support for electronic payment technologies and the adaptation of regulatory and legislative frameworks.

What are the lessons learned from the study?

Due to their importance for the recipient communities, the flows of money from migrants tend to remain stable and are less sensitive to changes in the economic climate.

How to optimize remittances and their impact on development

• Reducing the cost of migrant remittances will increase their contribution to development.
• An understanding of the local context is the key to reducing the cost of remittances and informal flows.
• It would appear that the cost of remittances in the Maghreb region and franc zone has stabilized at a level that remains too high.
• While the profile of actors is becoming more diverse, there is still a need to develop the range of services in order to be more competitive.
• An overhaul of regulatory frameworks, with the aim of promoting diversification in the range of services and financial products, would help increase competition and reduce the cost of remittances.
• Four types of financial and technological services and products can contribute to reducing the cost of remittances.
• Actors, services, tools, new technologies…: there are ultimately five areas to be explored in order to expand and strengthen the range of banking and non-banking products and encourage both a reduction in the cost of remittances and co-development.

The 9th forum, focused on the subject "Promoting sustainable urbanization of the outer suburbs of Vietnam’s cities" was held in March 19th and 20th in Hanoi under the presidency of Mr. Cao Viet Sinh, Vice-Minister of Planning and Investment of Vietnam and Mr. Christian Jacob, former French Minister, Member of Parliament and Mayor of Provins. The studies undertaken by Vietnamese and French experts were presented, and the recommendations on the public policies should be sent to high-level Vietnamese authorities. The first day was dedicated to risks and opportunities linked to the urban transition in the outer surburbs, and the second day to the governance tools necessary to the land management and urban planification.

AFD has opened the session on the financing of infrastructures by a presentation of Sarah Botton from CEFEB , on the Public-Private Partnerships. Building on the work done during a training workshop co-organized by CEFEB (AFD training center) and PADDI (decentralized cooperation between Région Rhône-Alpes and Ho Chi Minh Ville) last December, the presentation addressed the opportunities that this tool could present for developing urban services in Vietnam, while insisting that PPP is not a magic formula to deal with lack of State budget resources. In fact, private sector only pre-finances the infrastructures, which are in fine financed by tariff or taxes. PPP especially requires capacity building for authorities, future “regulators”. During the discussion session, the experts had fully referred to the terms of the AFD’s presentation, and MPI had formulated the request to AFD for continuing its efforts to support Vietnamese authorities on this subject.

The inaugural ceremony for the Mekong hydro-geological stations took place in the presence of the French Ambassador to Vietnam, the Director-General of the Mekong River Commission, the AFD Director in Hanoi, and representatives from the Vietnamese Ministries for the Environment and Transport and the Can Tho local authorities.

Why has the Mekong Commission set up the Mekong-HYCOS hydrological system?

The project’s overarching goal is to promote sustainable development in the Lower Mekong basin, under an international cooperation agreement signed in 1995 between the four Mekong countries (Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam), which established the Mekong River Commission (MRC).

The specific target is to establish a reliable hydrological observation system for the region (virtually real time data collection and distribution) to be shared by all four member countries to monitor water resources in the Mekong Basin.

 
View of the Mekong at Can Tho (photo AFD - J.C. Pires)

The outcome will be:

• a functional and reliable system for real-time collection and transmission of hydro-meteorological data (rainfall, water levels) that will improve hydrological monitoring and forecasting along the Mekong River and its main tributaries
• improved data processing and archiving systems in each country
• shared databases and communication networks at regional level
• supply and distribution of hydrological information to users
• strengthened capacities for sustainable use of the water system in the long term.

The project therefore contributes to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and in particular to Target 1 of Goal 7 to ensure environmental sustainability: “to integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental”.

A sophisticated network for collecting and analysing data on water
Under the project, the Mekong Commission and its member countries selected 32 hydro-meteorological stations along the main tributaries of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers and in the Mekong delta.

 
A HYCOS hydro-meteorological station  (photo AFD - M. Parent)

The stations have been upgraded with:

• automated devices for measuring water levels and rainfall  
• a data storage platform
• a telemetry system for transmitting as much of the data collected as possible by satellite or other suitable means.

 
An unprecedented collaborative effort to share information between the four countries  

Each of the four national hydrogeological services as well as the Mekong River Commission’s regional centre in Phnom Penh have been equipped with computer terminals to receive, process and archive the data transmitted by the measurement stations. All the receiving terminals have simultaneous access to all of the raw data.

This is the first time that the member countries (Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia) have agreed to share data to such an extent.  Real-time quality control of the raw data, acquired in virtually real time, ensures that they can be reliably used for flood forecasting by the Mekong River Commission and by the relevant national agencies: each country will be able to incorporate the data from upstream countries directly into their own forecasting system.
 
Transferring the know-how

A great many training activities were organised for the hydrological agencies in each country. These mainly followed the paired in-service training model, which is the most appropriate and effective system for the type of equipment installed.
Training was organised whenever an international expert was present in the region, at national level with local experts during each site visit and when the receiving stations (terminals) were being set up. Conventional training sessions and workshops were also organised to supplement the continuing training programme.

In Vietnam, the project financed 12 hydro-meteorological measurement stations and provided support on a diminishing scale to operations and maintenance.

Financing and implementation agencies

This 3M € Mekong-HYCOS project for the region is financed by the AFD (2 M€) and the French Global Environment facility (1 M€). It is implemented by the  Mekong River Commission and the technical ministries in each of the four member countries, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is supported by scientific and technical expertise from the Institute for Development Research IRD) and the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR), and has received the scientific endorsement of the World Meteorological Organisation.

Entering the final project phase

The final project phase, now about to begin, will maintain the training effort for the stakeholders, introduce a regional policy for maintenance and processing of hydrological data and build up a stock of spare parts.

The postponement of project completion to the end of 2012 will enable the MRC to organise an event on the hydrology of the Mekong Basin, which will illustrate the project’s results (film, brochures, reports from users, etc.) and draw the attention of policy-makers to the issue of sustainable water supplies in the sub-region.

This 3 M€ project is financed by the AFD (2 M€) and the FGEF (1 M€).

To find out more on this regional project, go to the  Mekong River Commission website

In Vietnam, since 2008, AFD has been funding 11 French NGO projects, for a total value of more than EUR 3 million. Almost one hundred French NGOs, accounting for 10% of the international NGOS registered in the country, are active on the field. Their projects are rather of medium size.

Despite the Vietnamese authorities’ efforts to produce favourable conditions for NGOs’ works, numbers of French NGOs decided to leave the country. Reasons are varied: NGOs’ strategies becoming inappropriate when Vietnam has joined the group of intermediary revenue countries; some important development achievements in Vietnam leading NGOs to displace their actions toward other regions supposedly of better priority.

Nevertheless, AFD Hanoi will keep promoting its funding in 2012, in collaboration with SCAC, in order to support a dynamic French NGOs community.

This initiative is well marked in the current context of willing of the Government of Vietnam to develop PPP in infrastructures and public services. MPI had launched a process of selection of pilot projects under the decision 71/2010 by the Prime Minister to invite the Line Ministries and Local Authorities to submit PPP projects. In this context, it is important to support these entities by capacity building activities, the diagnostic of services, appraisal of opportunities but also the choice of PPP model, and then in the later stage, on the technical and financial designs, procurement management, the contracts’ negotiation and monitoring. The training had formulated recommendations to authorities including MPI and Provincial People Committees. AFD had also shared many AFD publications in Vietnamese and this workshop will issue a publication in French and in Vietnamese.

By its different instruments, AFD Vietnam continues to support PPP’s development in Vietnam.

For more details: