PRESS ROOM

Donors stand firmly behind Vietnam amid turbulence

Date: 08-DEC-2008

By: Lien Huong

International donors last week committed a total of $5.01 billion in official development assistance for Vietnam next year, down 7.2 per cent against 2008.

However, the amount was said to be significant amid the current global economic crisis. Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc said that with the committed amount, international donors proved their great support to the Vietnamese government’s efforts to pursue policies to reform and develop the country’s socio-economic landscape.

“We highly appreciate the international donors, in such a difficult situation of the global economy, committing increasing amounts of ODA for Vietnam, which proved their big efforts to prioritise Vietnam [in the country’s development course],” Phuc said.

Big multilateral donors including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) pledged to provide Vietnam with higher ODA assistance next year against this year. The World Bank raised ODA commitments for Vietnam by 50.9 per cent to $1.66 billion for 2009 from $1.1 billion for this year.

ADB country director Ayumi Konishi said more than 75 per cent of the amount would be for roads, other infrastructure construction projects, healthcare and education development in Vietnam. He also revealed that the ADB was interested in providing loans for power plant construction projects in Vietnam, which were recently refused by the state-run Electricity of Vietnam because of a lack of funds.

“The ADB and other international partners will discuss in detail with the Vietnamese government the distribution of the funds for specific projects next year,” Konishi said. Japan, the biggest bilateral ODA provider for Vietnam last year, meanwhile announced a suspension in new aid loans for Vietnam until the Pacific Consultants International (PCI) corruption scandal was solved and effective measures against corruption was worked out.

Former PCI’s Japanese executives last month admitted in a Japanese court to bribing a Vietnamese official overseeing a Japanese ODA-funded road construction project in Ho Chi Minh City. Japanese ambassador in Vietnam Mitsuo Sakaba said that the Japanese government was unable to pledge new loans since it would be difficult for it to regain the support from the Japanese public for further assistance to Vietnam.

Last year, Japan pledged $1.1 billion in ODA for Vietnam. Japan has, therefore, ceased three big projects worth around 65 billion yen that it had originally planned to commit in last week’s CG meeting, including a second-phase water project in Hanoi, the sanitation project in Haiphong and the metro construction project in Hanoi. The Japanese ODA funds for the other three projects relating to the PCI case including the construction of the North-West corridor project and a Ho Chi Minh City sanitation project were also ceased.

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