Nearly VND 4.3 trillion allocated for climate-resilient infrastructure development in ethnic minority areas

The Climate Resilient Inclusive Infrastructure for Ethnic Minorities Project in Yen Bai, Son La, and Ha Giang aims to improve the quality of life and promote socio-economic development in the mountainous districts facing significant challenges. Through investments in transportation and irrigation systems and the enhancement of climate change adaptation capacity, the project expects to ensure water and food security and promote green, sustainable trade and tourism.

In Yen Bai province alone, the project is expected to have a total investment of nearly 4,300 billion VND (equivalent to over 177 million USD), with more than 3,169 billion VND funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and over 1,112 billion VND in counterpart funding (accounting for about 26%).

The goal is to improve the transportation and irrigation infrastructure for 6 districts and 1 town in Yen Bai province. This will help the ethnic minorities in mountainous and highland areas address issues related to water security, food security, facilitate better transportation connections, and enhance trade and cultural exchanges. Additionally, it aims to better utilize local advantages to develop sustainable and green tourism.

In the first component of the project, transportation and irrigation infrastructure will be built through five sub-projects, including: The irrigation system project providing water for the terraced rice fields in the La Pan Tan area (Mu Cang Chai district); The comprehensive management of the Nam Lung stream for irrigation in the Tu Le specialty rice farming area (Van Chan district); The Nghia Lo - Tram Tau road project; The Nghia Lo - Thach Luong - Phuc Son road project and The Mau A – Tan Nguyen – An Phu road project.

In Component 2, the Climate Resilient Inclusive Infrastructure for Ethnic Minorities Project will strengthen the capacity for public investment management in response to climate change. This includes mobilizing at least 2 million USD in grant funding through a separate grant agreement from the loan agreement to support activities such as: Assisting in assessments and proposing solutions to promote the development of green, sustainable tourism in the districts implementing the project; Supporting research, development, and pilot implementation of agroforestry, eco-tourism, and community-based tourism models involving ethnic minorities in the project areas…

$ 1 = VND 25.610 - Source: Vietcombank.