Charity
Swiss extend aid for ethnic groups
  • | VNS | July 06, 2011 02:12 PM

A Swiss-funded programme to improve public services in the northern provinces of Cao Bang and Hoa Binh has been extended four years with total budget of more than $14 million.

Residents of the northern province of Cao Bang\'s Quang Uyen District help build a road with the Commune Development Fund provided by Swiss Government.

The project was first introduced to the provinces in 2008 when $7 million was provided to enhance administrative reform through a pilot scheme to decentralise decision-making powers to the commune level.

It improved residents\' participation in developing socio-economical plans, provided funding and taught the locals how to manage the fund.

Under the agreement signed yesterday by Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam Jean-Hubert Labet and leaders of the two provinces, the Government of Switzerland through the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation granted more than $11 million to the programme.

The remaining $3 million came from the two provincial budgets. The Swiss Association for International Co-operation Helvetas will provide technical assistance.

Lebet said that although Vietnam had made incredible achievements in poverty reduction and economic growth in the last 20 years, poverty reduction was still a top priority, especially among ethnic minority groups.

In the first phase, the built up the capacities of commune staff and established mechanisms for participatory planning and information provision at the commune level, said Lebet. These successes would be expanded in the next phase.

Vice chairman of Hoa Binh Province People\'s Committee Nguyen Van Dung said the programme\'s approach was based on the needs of local residents and also engaged them to help carry the plan out.

He said thanks to the Commune Development Fund set up by the Swiss, more than 1,000 works of roads, irrigation, water supply had been built and thousand more activities carried out to improve local agriculture and production skills.

In the second phase, the programme aims to strengthen local planning, financial decentralisation and improving the delivery of public services in agriculture.

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