Chairman of The ODA National Steering Committee Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh (Source:VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – The ODA National Steering Committee helda meeting withdonors in Hanoi on June 17 to seek solutions to speed up the disbursement of ODAcapital and preferential loans, which has showed signs of slowing down inrecent years.
The meeting, chaired by the steering committee’schairman DeputyPrime Minister Pham Binh Minh, was attended by representatives from sixdonors which are the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the JapanInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM),the French Development Agency (AFD) and the KfW Development Bank.
As of 2018, Vietnam had received 80billion USD in ODA and preferential loans, making it one of the largest recipientsof this type of funding in the world. About 80 percent of the amount wasprovided by the six above-mentioned donors.
Of the total amount, 7 billion USD wasin the form of non-refundable aid, more than 70 billion USD was concessionalloans with interest rates under 2 percent, and 1.62 billion USD was loans underless generous conditions but their interest rates were still lower than thoseof commercial ones.
This is proof of Vietnam’s efforts tomobilise external resources for national development. Donors shared the viewthat Vietnam has effectively used loans, which is one of the reasons why theycontinued to commit ODA and concessional loans for Vietnam in the past years.
Reports of JICA, ADB and WB said theirprojects in Vietnam had been implemented better than those in other countries,with a high rate of projects completed and achieving set targets.
In 2018 alone, the six donors committed28.9 billion USD for Vietnam.
However, the disbursement rate of ODAand loans in Vietnam has slowed, dropping from a high 23.1 percent in 2014 tojust 11.2 percent in 2018, which was lower than the average global ratesrecorded by the six donors.
Of the committed capital for Vietnamin 2018, up to 16.9 billion USD is yet to be disbursed.
The delay in disbursement wasattributable to complicated and overlapped procedures, low readiness for projectsand cumbersome process and requirements for disbursement.
The slow disbursement of capitalresulted in projects not meeting implementation schedules and targets whilepushing up costs, affecting investment effectiveness and GDP growth.
The situation requires strongercommitment and more drastic efforts from all related sides to remove obstacles.It was proposed at the meeting that the six donors need to coordinate with theVietnamese Government in building the mid-term public investment plan using ODAand concessional loans for 2021-2025 as one of the solutions.-VNA
