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UN to join hands with Vietnam in tackling climate changes: official

Xinhua, May 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

The United Nations (UN) will join hands with Vietnam in tackling climate change, said UN Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson on Wednesday.

Speaking at a meeting with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi, the visiting UN official said he would pay a visit to Vietnam's southern Mekong Delta region to witness the impacts of drought and saline intrusion on local residents' lives.

After the trip, the UN official will report to the UN in order to bring out more measures, reported Vietnam's state-run news agency.

According to Eliasson, Vietnam has been included in the list of countries that need global supports to help tackle El Nino impacts.

Vietnamese president, for his part, expressed gratitude for UN's help in emergency humanitarian aid for those suffering severe impacts of drought and saline intrusion in the country's central highlands and southern Mekong Delta regions by including Vietnam in the list.

Quang said Vietnam will continue to actively participate in UN activities for a peaceful world with sustainable development.

In late April, Vietnam appealed to the international community for a 48.5-million-U.S. dollar emergency plan to address a worsening El Nino drought, which has affected 2 million people in the southern and central regions.

A recent joint rapid assessment, undertaken by the Vietnamese government, UN and non-governmental organizations in March, estimated that in the 18 most severely affected provinces in Vietnam, as many as 2 million people are without access to water and 1.1 million in need of food aid.

In the first four months of 2016, drought and saline intrusion in Vietnam have cost the country nearly 6.4 trillion Vietnamese dong (some 287 million U.S. dollars), said Vietnam's General Statistics Office.

According to the UN, the current El Nino event is one of the strongest on record affecting an estimated 60 million people across Africa, Asia, Central and South America and the Pacific.

In response to the crisis, a global call for support and action for 22 countries, including Vietnam, was announced.

The UN official is paying an official visit to Vietnam from Tuesday to Friday, according to Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is scheduled to visit Vietnam's southern Ben Tre province in Mekong Delta region on Thursday and will meet with Vietnam's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat on the same day. Endit