Japan to fund Vietnamese satellite project

Thursday 27 Oct 2011
The Japanese government has decided to offer loans to Vietnam for its domestic satellite programme, Vietnam News reports.

Accordingly, the country is to receive around 50 billion yen (US$660 million) in official development assistance, as reported by NHK-Japan. NHK added that Japanese firms would be able to participate in the project as part of the agreement.

The two governments are likely to finalise the deal at the end of this month.

NHK said that prior to this, Japan had never provided loans for satellite projects due to concerns over the technology being diverted for military use. However, it reported that the Japanese government has decided to support Vietnam in its efforts in disaster-prevention, including flood forecasting and mapping.

Vietnam plans to launch two earth-observation satellites after 2017.