Viet Nam seeks for Japan’s funding for North-South high-speed railway project

Vietnamese Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc made the above suggestion during his meeting with Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki on March 11 as part of his working visit to Japan.

According to Ho, Viet Nam's public debt is currently about 37 percent of GDP, lower than the set target of 60 percent capped by the National Assembly.

This is an advantage for Viet Nam to attract capital from foreign countries to invest in infrastructure as well as socio-economic development, he noted.

The North-South high-speed railway project has an estimated investment of US$67 billion and will be implemented in 2027, he said, adding that Viet Nam expects to mobilize 30 percent of the investment from foreign capital, including from Japan.

For his part, Shunichi Suzuki hailed the Vietnamese Government's efforts in creating favorable conditions for Japanese businesses and banks to cooperate and invest in Viet Nam.

He also expressed his willingness to join the North-South High-Speed Railway project as well as other infrastructure projects that Viet Nam is set to carry out.

The two ministers expressed their satisfaction to see the increasingly strong development of the two countries' relations, especially the upgrade of the ties to the Viet Nam-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity in Asia and the World last November.

They discussed the two countries' financial cooperation in several areas, such as taxes, customs, loans, aid, and use of official development assistance (ODA), while sharing experience and solutions to improve management capacity and professional operations of functional units.

In addition, the two ministers expressed mutual support in multilateral financial cooperation such as within the ASEAN 3 framework, focusing on areas such as the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) and Disaster Risk Finance (DRF) to enhance regional financial stability and resilience.

Earlier, Ho visited the Japan Exchange Group (JPX), and worked with the President of the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA) and the President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)./.