The Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam (SBV) has named the Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Maritime Bank) to support the "Urban Environment and Climate Change Adaptation Project" in the cities of Dong Hoi, Quang Binh province and Hoi An, Quang Nam province".

This project is funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under Loan Agreement No 3340-VIE and Grant Agreement No 0462-VIE dated March 25, 2017, between representatives of Viet Nam and ADB.

ADB has committed US$104 million in support for this project. Of which, $100 million is from ordinary capital resources (OCR) loans and $4 million from Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund under the Urban Financing Partnership Facility. The loan term is 25.5 years.

Under the project, infrastructure facilities to improve urban environmental conditions in the two cities of Dong Hoi and Hoi An will be constructed and upgraded. The improved urban environment is expected to strengthen the municipal financial bases in the project cities through an increase of tax revenues from the appreciation of land values and the tourism industry.

Additionally, it is expected to raise public awareness, strengthening the capacity of operation management, supervision and maintenance of works for a number of provincial and municipal agencies to ensure the effective and sustainable operation of the project, support localities to reduce environmental pollution, improve the urban environment and reduce the negative impacts of climate change.

The governing bodies of the project are the People’s Committees of Quang Nam and Quang Binh. The executing agency is the Dong Hoi City Environment and Climate Change Project Management Unit, Quang Binh province and the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone Authority.

The project is scheduled to run from 2017 to 2023. — VNS