Under an agreement signed by Le Duc Thuy, governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, and World Bank Vietnam acting director Nguyen Thang, the World Bank will allot a $20 million privileged loan, $10 million worth of free aid will come from the European Union and $5 million from the Japanese government.
"The project is based on the country's successful fight against the disease and is designed to further implement the country's mid- and long-term strategy to prevent a pandemic," Le Duc Thuy said.
The project will be implemented during three years in 11 provinces along two main strands - combating the virus among poultry and preventing an outbreak among people.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), bird flu has killed 171 people around the world since late 2003. The second hardest-hit country after Indonesia is Vietnam, where 93 human bird flu cases have been registered and the death toll hit 42. Vietnam suffered damage worth $200 million, as over 40 million domestic birds, or some 15% of the total, died of the virus or were culled.
