The World Bank has agreed to provide Vietnam with US$118 million of official development assistance (ODA) for disaster relief in the country’s central provinces.

A workshop was organized in Quy Nhon, a beach city in the south-central province of Binh Dinh, on Monday to launch the Emergency Natural Disaster Reconstruction Project in several localities in central Vietnam.

The event was attended by representatives of the World Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency, by competent authorities in Vietnam, and leaders of five Vietnamese provinces that are eligible for the program.

The localities include Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai, Phu Yen, Ninh Thuan and Ha Tinh, which were previously approved by the prime minister to be the beneficiaries of the project.

The five provinces are home to about 5.1 million residents.

During the gathering, an agreement was signed between the World Bank and the Vietnamese government, in which the WB will offer a $118 million ODA for disaster relief in the five provinces.

Accordingly, $52 million will be given to Binh Dinh Province, $18 million to Ha Tinh, while each of the remaining three localities will receive $16 million.

The Emergency Natural Disaster Reconstruction Project is expected to be carried out until 2022.

It aims at building infrastructure and boosting the capacity in order to cope with natural disasters in the future.

Vietnam’s central region is highly vulnerable to typhoons every year.

Among the central provinces, Ha Tinh, Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai, Phu Yen, and Ninh Thuan often suffer the heaviest damage.

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