Vietnam ’s official development assistance (ODA) disbursement is still modest while the country’s budget deficit is forecast to climb up to 8 per cent this year from last year’s 5 per cent, said Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc.
Disbursements of World Bank-funded projects are between 11 per cent and 15 per cent of its total pledged aids of US$5.1 billion for 42 projects, far lower than the required rate by the bank at over 20 per cent, Phuc said.
Even several World Bank-financed projects saw only 1 per cent of the capital disbursed, Phuc told a conference in Hanoi on June 5 to discuss measures to boost ODA disbursement.
The minister also highlighted that around US$3.5 billion ODA pledged by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has not yet been disbursed.
“Sluggish disbursement will lead to higher costs for projects and reduce ODA use efficiency. This will cause a difficulty for Vietnam to get new ODA sources”, said the ADB Country Director Ayumi Konishi.
The situation is attributed to several reasons, including ministerial agencies’ delayed approval for projects, slow bidding approval by donors and stagnant implementation pace of projects.
Vietnam has inked contracts to get US$1.47 billion worth of ODA in the first five months of this year.
The country had disbursed US$720 million of official development assistance in the same period, including US$649 million of loans and US$71 million of grants.
Vietnam plans to disburse US$1.5 billion-US$1.6 billion, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said.
(VietnamNet)
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