Vietnam's new Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) represents a credible and financially-sustainable strategy to promote growth and poverty reduction over the next five years, the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors said at its meeting today.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding which opens the way for these organizations to jointly support a range of new grassroots business development projects in the developing world.