VINACHEM

HA NOI — A delegation of Italian engineering companies and contractors in transport, energy and environment sectors will visit Viet Nam from Sunday to Wednesday, Trade Commissioner Marco Saladini said in Ha Noi yesterday.

The purpose of the mission was to aid the nation's rapid development by improving the country's infrastructure, presenting Italian companies with co-operation opportunities, Saladini said.

Over the past five years, infrastructure investment in the country had not kept pace with the GDP growth of 7.3 per cent. To meet demand and development goals, it was estimated Viet Nam's overall infrastructure spending requirements over the next five years alone were in the range of US$165 billion, about $33 billion a year.

Italian Trade Commission research indicated initiated projects to be completed by 2015 in the three key sectors' infrastructure were worth $85 billion.

Even this smaller figure implied a strong acceleration from the current overall expenditure level of $5 billion or 9.4 per cent of the country's GDP, which was the average of the last few years, Saladini said.

(Source: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn)