A Vietnamese official said on Wednesday that suspended Japanese loans are confined to the projects involving bribery allegations.

 

　　The remarks came in response to reports by Japanese press saying that Japan will halt providing official development assistance （ODA） for Vietnam due to railway bribery allegations.

 

　　Nguyen Xuan Tien， deputy head of Foreign Economic Relations Department under Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment （ MPI） said on local VNExpress online newspaper that at the same time， Japan maintains normal offering of non-refundable aid and technical assistance to Vietnam.

 

　　For new projects of Vietnam Railways Corporation （VRC） as well as other Vietnamese projects that are proposed， the Japanese side will consider the fact that Vietnam commits to strictly handle the case and map out measures to prevent the similar incidents from happening in the coming time， said Tien.

 

　　"The Japanese side said they will pause disbursement for ODA， not all but part of one billion U.S. dollars of ODA for Vietnam in 2014，" said Tien， adding that the part remains trivial and relates directly to the bribery allegation case.

 

　　The MPI official said he hoped in June， the two sides will continue to work on the case and build preventive measures for similar incidents， creating favorable conditions for normal disbursement of ODA.

 

　　Local Dan Tri （Knowledge for People） online newspaper on Wednesday quoted Dinh La Thang， minister of transport as saying that after two months， the case remains under investigation and the official conclusion will be made public.

 

　　Thang said， "It takes time for measures of combating corruption in Vietnam to take effect. Together with high determination of the government， as well as the monitoring of local people and press， the situation will get better and we are heading for the better situation."

 

　　The allegation that the Japan Transport Corporation （JTC） gave bribe to several Vietnamese civil servants to gain order of a project was revealed in March 2014 as JTC chairman admitted that he spent money trading off for winning bid of an ODA project.

 

　　So far， six Vietnamese railway officials have been taken under investigation for allegedly relating the case， including Tran Quoc Dong， former deputy general director of VRC and Tran Van Luc， former director of the railway project management unit.

 

　　The case drew great attention of local people and has been widely discussed among Vietnamese netizens.

 

　　Reader "longkk" commented on VNExpress on Wednesday that "The fact that they （Japanese） pause the loans is reasonable. If they stop laying confidence on us， this will be a greater loss."

 

　　Echoing "longkk"， reader "Hai Tuy" wrote， "Those who got bribe for their personal interest had great influence on national interests."

 

　　"Strictly punishment must be made to those who received bribe. The incident had shame on Vietnam as well as had negative impact on the country's economy and life of local people，" a netizen named "CT" said.