world-bank HANOI: Vietnam signed an agreement to borrow $487 million from foreign sources for a project to improve electricity distribution services across the nation and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank said on Thursday.

 

Under the $800 million project, $449 million would come from the World Bank, $30 million from the Clean Investment Fund and another $8 million from the Australian Agency for International Development, the bank said in a statement.

 

The Vietnamese government will contribute the remaining $313 million, the statement said.

 

Access to electricity in Vietnam has risen to 97 percent last year from 50 percent in 1996, and the World Bank's assistance has shifted now from providing new electricity connections to improving the service quality, the bank said.

 

The 25-year loan from the World Bank carries an interest rate of 1.25 percent, a service charge of 0.75 percent and a five-year grace period, the bank said.

 

Copyright Reuters, 2012

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