Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has urged relevant ministries and provinces to speed up the disbursement of capital sources from the Government bond sale for education and healthcare projects across the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said the Government may allocate up to 400-500 billion VND for scientific projects of high applicability in the agricultural sector.

Japan will give special attention to Viet Nam ’s large projects of strategic significance to the bilateral relations, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told Vietnamese Ambassador Chu Tuan Cap in Tokyo on January 15.

The Prime Minister agreed in principle upon a 4.18 billion USD project invested by Brunei ’s New City Company to build a high-grade tourist complex in central Phu Yen province.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on November 23 that it will provide a grant worth of 700,000 USD to help Viet Nam improve its ability to implement official development assistance (ODA) projects.

More and more foreign businesses have flocked to the Dung Quat Economic Zone (EZ) to explore opportunities for investment, according to the EZ management board.

The Chu Lai open economic zone in central Quang Nam province has so far this year licensed three projects and permitted the expansion of an operational one, attracting nearly US$45.6 million and VND62 billion and leasing 70 ha.

Many large foreign companies from Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Singapore have come to the Van Phong economic zone in central Khanh Hoa province for their major investment projects.

Over the past two years, the central key economic region has been predominantly featured by bustling activities in Dung Quat, Nhon Hoi and Chu Lai as investors began to turn the spotlight on this narrow strip of land.

The year 2005 saw many events taking place in Moc Bai Border Economic Zone (BEZ) such as the inauguration of the Border Gate Complex on February 19, the completion of the largest bridge on the Trans-Asia road, the opening of the duty-free supermarket in October and the opening of the Ben Thanh - Moc Bai bus route to carry people from Ho Chi Minh City and Tay Ninh Province to the economic zone.