JICA is designing new support package to assist Viet Nam's reforms

The JICA Chief Representative made the announcement while speaking at JICA Viet Nam Office's press conference for the second half of 2025 fiscal year and first half of 2026.

Kobayashi said Viet Nam's economic growth over the past years had been driven primarily by labor-intensive manufacturing, foreign direct investment (FDI) and deeper integration into the global economy.

Viet Nam is now advancing a series of major reforms focused on science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, institutional modernization and strengthening the capacity of domestic enterprises, he said.

Against this backdrop, JICA is developing a new support package to assist Viet Nam in pursuing reforms toward a new growth model.

Four pillars of JICA's new support package

According to Kobayashi, the support package will focus on four key pillars.

The first is promoting science, technology, innovation and digital transformation, together with human resource development.

The second is supporting the growth of domestic enterprises and their deeper integration into global value chains.

The third is improving the investment environment.

The fourth is developing strategic infrastructure.

JICA is also discussing with the Vietnamese Government on the possibility of providing a new program loan to support the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation in Viet Nam.

Regarding ODA loans, Fukuda Chihiro, Deputy Chief Representative of the JICA Viet Nam Office in charge of loan projects, said that based on loan agreements (L/As) signed between October 2025 and September 2026, JICA's total commitments reached approximately ¥89 billion for three projects.

Two of the projects, committed in May 2026, focus on infrastructure development in mountainous and midland areas in northern Viet Nam.

The climate change-adapted infrastructure development project to support local production in the northern mountainous and midland areas has a total loan value of approximately ¥17 billion.

Meanwhile, the disaster-resilient rural development project is backed by a loan of approximately ¥22 billion.

Along with that is a loan of ¥50 billion for the green transformation support program committed in March 2026./.