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Vietnam to have a national steering committee for ODA (01/8)
01/08/2012 - 48 Lượt xem
The Deputy Prime Minister urged the Ministry of Planning and Investment to quickly follow the Prime Minister's guidance for upgrading the Government's ODA Task Force to a National Steering Committee for ODA. This committee will be headed by a Deputy Prime Minister with the upgrade reported to the Prime Minister prior to July 31, 2012.
Data from the Ministry
of Planning and Investment show that total ODA committed for Vietnam
through international treaties signed from 1993-2011 was over US$52
billion. Of this, preferential loans accounted for 87 percent and grant
aid 13 percent.
Committed ODA for Vietnam has grown considerably for the last
four years. Specifically, in 2009, foreign donors committed to
providing Vietnam with US$7.3 billion in ODA. That went up to US$8.063
billion in 2010 and stood at US$7.9 billion in 2011 after Vietnam
became a medium-income country. This year, ODA committed for Vietnam is
US$7.386 billion. This reflects the international community's trust in Vietnam.
However, according to the Ministry
of Planning and Investment, from 1993-2011 about US$33.414 billion of
ODA capital was disbursed, accounting for 64.25 percent of the total amount of ODA signed in that period. In the first five months of 2012, Vietnam disbursed US$1.86 billion of ODA capital.
Compared with the previous years, ODA disbursement has improved but results desired by the Government have not been achieved.
Policy-related problems remain the main
reason. Specifically, many ODA projects have been delayed due to
differences in terms of procedure between Vietnam and foreign donors. Other reasons include slow site clearance, lack of reciprocal capital and complicated purchasing and bidding procedures.
At
a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai in early July
2012, World Bank's Country Director for Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa
admitted the differences in ODA project development procedures between Vietnam and the World Bank. She affirmed that the World Bank must undertake some changes in the process of cooperation and funding ODA projects in Vietnam, especially in considering and giving a reply to ODA applications.
At a meeting with the Vietnamese side in June 2012, a representative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also admitted that some ODA projects using ADB loans in the recent period were delayed due to some extent to ADB's tardiness in replying ODA applications, and this will be improved in the coming time.
To accelerate ODA disbursement, on January 19, 2012, the Prime
Minister released Decision 106/2012/QD-TTg approving a plan entitled
"Orientations for attraction, management and utilization of ODA and other preferential loans in the period from 2011-2015" submitted by the Ministry
of Planning and Investment. This plan proposes many solutions to boost
ODA disbursement. Vietnam's projections are to disburse US$14-16
billion of ODA capital from 2011-2015./.
Source: VEN.
Source: VEN.
