VietNamNet Bridge – The United Nations has kicked off the second stage of its cooperation programme on fighting against bird flu with the Government of Vietnam. The US Government has also announced it will fund two new projects on preventing the pandemic in Vietnam.
The execution of the second stage of the cooperation programme was kicked off on January 9 by the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative. The total budget for the cooperation programme is $23.1mil. Donors have committed the aid of $6.9mil for the first stage of the programme. The second stage of the programme is expected to cost $16.2mil, and $14.7mil of aid has been mobilised.
Andrew Speedy, FAO’s representative in Vietnam, has confirmed the organisation’s commitments to cooperating with the Government of Vietnam and other partners to prevent and fight against the bird flu pandemic. He said that the risk of a bird flu outbreak was very high leading up to Tet and that people should be vigilant for the illegal trading of poultry.
On the same day, the US Government announced it would fund two new projects on preventing and fighting against bird flu in Vietnam worth $126,400.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will set up two alliances to implement the project in communities in Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces and supervise and control the activities of fighting against bird flu.
At the end of December, the World Bank announced it would give non-refundable aid of $28mil to 13 countries in the world, including $10mil to Vietnam.
Ha Yen | 
