The total project cost will amount to approximately $4.5 billion.

"The ADB's assistance will help ensure access to clean water, the development of cities and the preservation of biologically diverse forests for future generations," said ADB President Kuroda.

According to the ADB, in many of Viet Nam's largest cities, up to 40 per cent of treated water is lost before it reaches the end user. Moreover, four in every ten families have no connection to a central water supply system at all. The $1 billion financial support mechanism from the ADB will help improve clean water access for 3 million families in Viet Nam's cities, including half a million poor households who will receive their own piped water connection for the first time. The ADB's assistance forms part of a $2.8 billion investment programme

A $30 million loan from the ADB's concessional Asian Development Fund will further enhance cross-border co-operation in protecting a continuous stretch of biologically divers forest in Viet Nam's central region, which spans the highlands of Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Nam provinces.

A $350 million loan, part of an overall $636 million ADB package will support a $1.6 billion project to construct a modern expressway to the south of congested HCM City. The 57-kilometre expressway between Ben Luc and Long Thanh will reduce traffic congestion in the heart of HCM City by allowing vehicles travelling from east to west to bypass the city centre. When the expressway opens in 2017, it will reduce east-west travel time by 80 per cent and cut the number of traffic accidents by 10 per cent.