Can Tho, January 26, 2018 — During their visit to Can Tho City today, the World Bank Country Director to Vietnam, Mr. Ousmane Dione, and the Swiss Ambassador to Vietnam, Mdm. Beatrice Maser Mallor, stressed the importance of improving urban resilience as the City addresses the challenges of rapid urbanization and the impacts of climate change.
“Vietnam has made strong progress in economic growth and poverty reduction, and continues to undergo transformation from a rural to urban economy. Like other cities, Can Tho is facing challenges of urbanization, and partnership between development partners and local authorities can help address those issues.” Said the World Bank Country Director Ousmane Dione.
The World Bank Country Director and the Swiss Ambassador visited project sites along the Can Tho river where embankment works will be improved as result of the collaboration between the World Bank and Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). Support from SECO has been crucial in addressing the multiple aspects of flood management in the city.
“Switzerland is committed to enable sustainable and climate resilient urban development in Vietnam. It is important that the City leadership will allocate enough resources to operate and sustain this new urban planning and flood risk management system”. Said the Swiss Ambassador Beatrice Maser Mallor.
During meetings with city leadership, the World Bank Country Director expressed appreciation of the partnership with both Can Tho city and SECO, in piloting innovative solutions to address Vietnam’s urban challenges, and discussed ongoing and potential areas of collaboration.
The World Bank is committed to work with other partners to help develop urban centers’ resilience to address critical priorities, such as planning and managing population growth, land use, infrastructure development, environmental sustainability and disaster management, in an efficient and effective manner.
The World Bank Director and the Swiss Ambassador stressed that a successful implementation of the Can Tho Urban Development and Resilience Project will require strong institutional coordination and technical capacities. They expressed their interest in seeing replication of successful models from this project in the future. This will make the ongoing project beneficial to other cities in the Mekong Delta Region as well as other regions and countries.
