January 11, 2007

UN pours US$33.2 million to fight bird flu in Vietnam 

The United Nations has kicked off the second stage of its cooperation programme on fighting against bird flu with the Government of Vietnam.

The US government has also announced it will fund two new projects on preventing the pandemic in Vietnam worth US$126,000. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will set up two alliances to implement the project in communities in Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces and supervise and control the activities of fighting against bird flu.

The execution of the second stage of the cooperation programme started on January 9 by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The total budget for the cooperation programme is US$23.1million as donors have committed an aid of US$6.9 million on the first stage of the programme.

The second stage of the programme is expected to cost US$16.2million and US$14.7million of aid has been mobilised.

Andrew Speedy, FAO's representative in Vietnam, has confirmed the organisation's commitments to cooperating with the Vietnamese government and other partners to combat a possible bird flu pandemic. He said that the risk of a bird flu outbreak was very high leading up to Tet Lunar New Year and that people should be vigilant for smuggled poultry.

The World Bank announced late December it would give non-refundable aid of US$28 million to 13 countries in the world, including US$10 million to Vietnam.