HANOI, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to provide a grant of 23 million U.S. dollars to help Laos with the construction and renovation of water treatment plants in 15 towns around the country, the Lao newspaper Vientiane Times reported Monday.
The agreement was signed between the bank's country director Gil Hong Kim and Deputy Minister of Finance Viengthong Siphadone in Vientiane.
Under the agreement, the grant will be provided for the Small Town and Water Supply Sanitation Project which targeted to the construction and renovation of clean water supply systems in 15 towns around the country, said the Lao Ministry of Public Works and Transport.
The project is expected to expand local communities' access to clean water, especially in remote areas.
The project will also help the government achieve its 6th socio-economic development plan and the United Nation (UN) millennium development goals, one of the main conditions necessary for Laos to leave the UN's list of least developed countries by 2020.
So far this year the bank has allocated two grants worth more than 40 million U.S. dollars. The bank said it planned to approve grants of about 84 million U.S. dollars to Laos this year.
Last year, the bank provided Laos with grant aid worth 53 million U.S. dollars, to increase capacity building in the management of special economic zones.
