Japan will host its first meeting of aid donor countries and organizations to Vietnam on Dec. 11 and 12, Foreign Ministry officials said Wednesday.
In hosting the annual meeting, Tokyo is apparently demonstrating its firm commitment to the communist state's free-market reforms. Senior officials from nearly 30 donor governments and organizations are expected to attend the conference, which will be sponsored by the World Bank, the officials said, requesting that they not be named.
Although the officials refused to reveal the amount of aid Japan intends to pledge next month, saying no decision has yet been made, the figure is expected to be larger than the 90.5 billion yen given last year and could exceed the 100 billion yen level for the first time.
The last meeting of aid donors to Vietnam was held in Hanoi in December 1996, following three sessions in Paris. Last year, 22 donor governments and seven international organizations pledged a total of $2.4 billion in aid for the Southeast Asian country.
Japan is Vietnam's largest single aid donor and last year's 90.5 billion yen included 81 billion yen in low-interest official yen loans for nine power, transport and other infrastructure projects. The Tokyo meeting comes 11 months after Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto expressed Japan's readiness to host such a conference when he met with then Vietnamese Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet in January.
In his meeting with Kiet, Hashimoto also reaffirmed Tokyo's commitment to supporting Vietnam's decade-old "doi moi" renovation policy of transforming its socialist-style, centrally-planned economic system into a market oriented one.