HANOI 12/5/2008: Japan’s ambassador to communist Vietnam yesterday said his country had suspended new aid loans to Hanoi, citing a major corruption scandal that came to light last month.
The move came after former executives of Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International (PCI) admitted in a Japanese court in November to paying kickbacks to a Vietnamese official overseeing a Tokyo-funded road project.
Ambassador Mitsuo Sakaba told an international donors’ meeting in Hanoi that “we are unable to pledge new yen loans” until both countries work out “effective and meaningful measures against corruption.”
Japan is Vietnam’s biggest bilateral donor.
“Following the grave incident, the two governments set up a joint committee to discuss concrete measures to be taken to prevent corruption relating to Japan’s ODA (official development assistance) to Vietnam,” he said.
“Until effective and meaningful measures against corruption be worked out through this joint committee, it would be difficult to regain the support from the Japanese public for further assistance to Vietnam, and we are unable to pledge new yen loans.”
Japan last year gave more than a billion dollars in ODA to Vietnam and has been studying several major infrastructure projects, including a new north-south transnational railway and highway and a high-tech industrial park.
Japan had planned to extend ODA loans of about 700 million dollars to Vietnam in the first half of fiscal 2008 to improve transport and sewerage systems, the ambassador said, according to a copy of his statement.
“All the relevant procedures for those projects, however, have been suspended since the PCI corruption case was brought to light,” Sakaba told the Consultative Group meeting, attended by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
“It was most regrettable that there was a bribery case by a Japanese firm in relation to Japan’s loan assistance project in Vietnam.”
Sakaba, later speaking with journalists, said ODA soft loans would be suspended, but technical assistance projects and grant aid would continue.
The PCI case came to light in Vietnam last month via an online Japanese media report, which led a National Assembly deputy to question Prime Minister Dung about the case in a televised question-and-answer session.
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported that former PCI executives facing a Tokyo court had admitted paying $820,000 in bribes since 2002 to Huynh Ngoc Sy, the head of Ho Chi Minh City’s project management unit.
Prosecutors charged that PCI had promised Sy a total of $2.6m for favours in awarding consulting contracts to the Tokyo-based firm in connection with Japanese ODA-financed road projects.
Dung, speaking in the assembly, promised authorities would investigate the case, and Sy was suspended from his post the following week.
Sakaba told journalists: “It’s really disappointing to us to have this kind of matter. We should avoid the recurrence of this kind of corruption case, of bribery, so we will work out some new mechanism for more transparency.”
(Source: AFP, http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=December2008&file=World_News200812051564.xml)
The move came after former executives of Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International (PCI) admitted in a Japanese court in November to paying kickbacks to a Vietnamese official overseeing a Tokyo-funded road project.
Ambassador Mitsuo Sakaba told an international donors’ meeting in Hanoi that “we are unable to pledge new yen loans” until both countries work out “effective and meaningful measures against corruption.”
Japan is Vietnam’s biggest bilateral donor.
“Following the grave incident, the two governments set up a joint committee to discuss concrete measures to be taken to prevent corruption relating to Japan’s ODA (official development assistance) to Vietnam,” he said.
“Until effective and meaningful measures against corruption be worked out through this joint committee, it would be difficult to regain the support from the Japanese public for further assistance to Vietnam, and we are unable to pledge new yen loans.”
Japan last year gave more than a billion dollars in ODA to Vietnam and has been studying several major infrastructure projects, including a new north-south transnational railway and highway and a high-tech industrial park.
Japan had planned to extend ODA loans of about 700 million dollars to Vietnam in the first half of fiscal 2008 to improve transport and sewerage systems, the ambassador said, according to a copy of his statement.
“All the relevant procedures for those projects, however, have been suspended since the PCI corruption case was brought to light,” Sakaba told the Consultative Group meeting, attended by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
“It was most regrettable that there was a bribery case by a Japanese firm in relation to Japan’s loan assistance project in Vietnam.”
Sakaba, later speaking with journalists, said ODA soft loans would be suspended, but technical assistance projects and grant aid would continue.
The PCI case came to light in Vietnam last month via an online Japanese media report, which led a National Assembly deputy to question Prime Minister Dung about the case in a televised question-and-answer session.
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun daily reported that former PCI executives facing a Tokyo court had admitted paying $820,000 in bribes since 2002 to Huynh Ngoc Sy, the head of Ho Chi Minh City’s project management unit.
Prosecutors charged that PCI had promised Sy a total of $2.6m for favours in awarding consulting contracts to the Tokyo-based firm in connection with Japanese ODA-financed road projects.
Dung, speaking in the assembly, promised authorities would investigate the case, and Sy was suspended from his post the following week.
Sakaba told journalists: “It’s really disappointing to us to have this kind of matter. We should avoid the recurrence of this kind of corruption case, of bribery, so we will work out some new mechanism for more transparency.”
(Source: AFP, http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=December2008&file=World_News200812051564.xml)