PRIMEX signed a contract with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the implementation of a Project Preparatory Technical Assistance (PPTA) for the Water Efficiency Improvement in Drought Affected Provinces (WEIDAP) Project in Viet Nam (TA 9147-VIE). The TA executing agency is the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and the implementing agency is the MARD Central Projects Office (CPO).
The Consultant Team will design an investment project that will rehabilitate and modernize the irrigation system in eight sites in five drought-affected provinces in Viet Nam. The PPTA will involve five types of assessments – technical, economic and financial, governance, poverty and social, and safeguards – to ensure that the investment project will address country’s needs, align with the country partner strategy with Viet Nam, and elicit stakeholder inputs.
PRIMEX President and CEO Elvira Ablaza, who is also the Consultant Project Director, traveled to Hanoi with Mr. Nestor Escara, PRIMEX Manager for Technical Services and designated Project Coordinator, from 9-15 November 2016.
They attended the PPTA kick-off meeting and held internal meetings with the PPTA Team Leader, Mr. Kevin Rutter; the national consultants led by Mr. Nguyen Dinh Ninh, Institutional Specialist/Deputy 12 Thang Long Technology Transfer and Construction Consultant Joint Stock Company (TL12); and Mr. Bui Van Thanh, PRIMEX Country Manager for Viet Nam.
The kick-off meeting, held at the ADB Viet Nam Resident Mission ((VRM), was chaired by Mr. Sanath Ranawana, ADB Senior Natural Resources Economist, and co-chaired by Dr. Ngoc Vu Chau, MARD-CPO Project Manager. Other meeting participants included TL12 Director Pham Ngoc Lam, ADB Project Analyst Karen Chua, and Mr. Colin Steley, international Irrigation Engineer.
cover photo: Group photo taken before the celebratory dinner following the Kick-Off Meeting, from left to right are Ms. Elvira Ablaza (PRIMEX President/CEO and Project Director), Mr. Colin Steley (international Irrigation Specialist), Mr. Nguyen Hong Phoung (MARD-Director General of CPO), Mr. Kevin Rutter (PPTA Team Leader), Mr. Nguyen Dinh Ninh, (national Institutional Specialist/DTL), and Dr. Vu Ngoc Chau (MARD-CPO Project Manager).