An agreement to this effect was signed in Hanoi on April 16 between Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Le Duc Thuy and the ADB’s Country Director for Vietnam Ayumi Konishi.

In Vietnam, education is regarded a paramount investment option for the country’s long-term economic growth and equitable social development. The country’s accession to the WTO necessitated Vietnam to accelerate strengthening of secondary education in developing human resources required for greater integration in the global economy. The ADB has long been supporting the Government’s commitment to universal secondary education with quality, efficiency and sustainability. With the increase in the enrolment rate to over 90 percent, lower secondary education has made commendable progress but expansion of upper secondary and professional secondary education and improvement of their quality remain to be key challenges for Vietnam’s education system.

“For Vietnam’s sustainable growth in the globalizing economic context, rapid expansion and quality improvement of upper secondary and professional secondary education are essential,” said Mr Konishi. “In order to compete and seize opportunities to be created by globalization, Vietnam needs to foster a competitive labor force, and upper and professional secondary education has an important role to play.”

The US$34 million loan for the Upper Secondary and Professional Teacher Development Project (USPTDP) will help the Ministry of Education and Training upgrade in-service and pre-service teacher training to be more relevant and responsive to the demands from the growing market economy. The Project will also improve physical facilities of selected teacher training institutes in ethnic minority areas to expand access to the disadvantaged groups.

The ADB has been successfully supporting a series of secondary education projects in Vietnam, focusing on the development of lower secondary schooling. With the Government’s strong leadership in ensuring effective implementation of the loan with full and active participation of all the key stakeholders, this new project is expected to have strong synergy with these ongoing secondary education projects.

The ADB’s loan, which covers 78.7 percent of the total project cost of US$43.18 million, comes from its Asian Development Fund. It carries a 32-year term, including a grace period of 8 years. Interest of 1.0 percent per annum is charged during the grace period and 1.5 percent per annum thereafter.