The Deputy PM made the statement in an interview granted to Tokyo-based Vietnam News Agency (VNA) correspondent during his working visit to Japan from May 25-29, which took place more than two months after the disasters devastated the country.

Hai cited the fact that over the past 10-15 years, Vietnam suffered losses of between 1 to 2 percent of its GDP and about 500 people were killed each year during natural disasters.

Within the framework of the 17 th International Conference on the Future of Asia, the Vietnamese delegation worked with Japanese leaders and officials of the Ministries of Economy, Trade and Industry; Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Foreign Affairs; and Finance, and several major economic organisations.

At these meetings, the Vietnamese Deputy PM affirmed that, as a strategic partner of Japan , Vietnam always supports and is willing to continue assist the Japanese Government and people in recovering the economy and infrastructure destroyed by the natural disasters.

During the working sessions with the Japanese ministries, the two sides discussed the continued implementation of cooperation programmes related to Japanese official development assistance (ODA).

Although Japan is facing a wide range of difficulties, the Japanese leaders and officials pledged to maintain the volume of ODA for Vietnam , Hai said, noting that in 2010, Japan provided Vietnam with 150 billion JPY in this form of aid.

Regarding solutions to cope with climate change, the deputy PM said that Vietnam is coordinating closely with other nations worldwide, including Japan , to carry out projects to prevent, adapt and mitigate impacts of climate change and natural disasters on the country.

In collaboration with Japan and other nations, Vietnam has embarked on 20 projects and programmes with a combined funding of 1.3 billion USD to deploy measure to cope with natural calamities. Some 10 other projects worth 1.3 billion USD will be implemented in the future for the same purpose.

The deputy PM also praised the efforts and proactive measures the Japanese government and people, and international organisations have taken to overcome the aftermaths of the nuclear incident, quake and tsunami./.