Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday called on the international donors to provide the practical assistance to help Vietnam cope with climate change.

Dung made the appeal at the 2009 Consultative Group (CG) Meeting for Vietnam where international donors meet with government officials to discuss opportunities and challenges facing Vietnam. The meeting opened on Thursday.

Speaking at the opening session of the CG meeting, Dung said that Vietnam is forecast to be among the worst affected few countries from rising sea-level.

If the sea level rises by 0.75 to one meter, Vietnam's plains and coastal areas will be submerged by 19 to 38 percent, said Dung.

"This would cause direct and severe impacts to the livelihood, society and food security of Vietnam and the world because Vietnam produces a fifth of the world export rice and helps guarantee food for hundreds of million people," said Dung.

To deal with the climate change issue, the country has developed an action plan to respond to the serious threat, said Dung. Vietnam is also looking forward to the practical assistance and help from the donors.

Dung said that Vietnam always treasure each and every coin of official development assistance (ODA) and will do its best to improve the effectiveness of ODA utilization.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2009)