The grant is part of a US$1.4 million two-year safety effort to help the CAAV obtain Category I status under the US Federal Aviation Administration’s International Aviation Safety Assessment Programme (IASA). Achieving Category I will permit direct access by Vietnamese air carriers to the US and will facilitate greater investment by US airlines and other aviation organisations in Vietnam’s growing air services market.

The technical assistance will be carried out by the Virginia-based Robinson Aviation Inc. In addition to the USTDA grant, Robinson Aviation will provide resources worth about US$87,000 to complete the technical assistance programme.

Since 1997, the USTDA has approved more than US$10 million in grants for projects in Vietnam in the environmental, transportation, information technology, energy and telecommunications sectors.