Vietnam is an important symbol of success, and the World Bank (WB) continues to seek measures to support Vietnam in facing challenges for development, a statement made by Axel van Trotsenburg, WB's Vice President for Concessional Finance and Global Partnerships, said here on Tuesday during his visit to Vietnam. The WB official paid a working visit to Vietnam from June 17-19, during which he worked with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai, Minister of Finance Vuong Dinh Hue, State Bank of Vietnam Governor Nguyen Van Binh, and Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh, on measures to promote the cooperation between Vietnam and the organization. Discussing the future strategy of the International Development Association (IDA), Axel van Trotsenburg said Vietnam is advancing on the road of development, and IDA is seeking new ways to maintain its role as a close partner of the country. IDA will particularly concentrate on some key contents for development, including climate change, gender equality and crisis (of food and natural disasters), and countries vulnerable to conflicts, said the WB official. According to IDA, over the past years, Vietnam was successful in reducing poverty rate, from 58 percent in 1993 to 14.5 percent in 2008, and increasing the annual net income by 7.3 percent. The country recorded notable achievements in education and power supply to both urban and rural citizens. IDA has contributed to this success through its financial support to the country's economic renewals, agriculture, infrastructure, healthcare and schooling. IDA has granted credits with no interest and non- refundable loans to the country worth 13.2 billion U.S. dollars. The fact that Vietnam has effectively used the funds from IDA has helped in facilitating the country's development and making IDA's additional grant to the country from July 2011 to June 2014 possible, said the official.