New chapter for Vietnam-Switzerland development cooperation

At the workshop, Mr. Steven Geiger, Head of the SDC program in Vietnam, said: “SDC is very satisfied with the outcomes of the bilateral SDC-Vietnam collaboration over the past 25 years”.  The SDC program has delivered several important achievements. SDC’s overarching goal is poverty alleviation. All SDC projects directly or indirectly contributed to the achievement of this goal.

At the workshop

H.E. Ms. Beatrice Maser Mallor, Ambassador of Switzerland to Vietnam said: “Perhaps SDC’s most significant result is to give people a voice in local government and to promote people’s participation in decisions affecting their livelihoods at the grassroots level”.

In the coming time, Switzerland will continue to stay engaged in Vietnam with overseas development assistance (ODA) but adapts its development cooperation to new realities and needs as Vietnam is now a lower middle income country. While SDC’s bilateral poverty reduction and governance program in Vietnam comes to an end in 2016, Vietnam will still benefit from a sizeable number of global and regional SDC programs which address challenges such as climate change, water and food security.

The bilateral development cooperation between Switzerland and Vietnam will continue and focus on economic development cooperation, supporting Vietnam to achieve sustainable economic growth. This program is implemented by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). The strategy outlining the economic cooperation for 2017-2020 will be launched soon. One chapter of the Swiss-Vietnamese development cooperation ends, another begins.

From 1992 to 2016, SDC has invested more than 216 million CHF in grants through 32 programs. SDC program activities in Vietnam which are part of SDC’s overall engagement in the frame of its Mekong Region Program, are estimated to have reached 4.6 to 6.8 million people.