Position Changed

Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh said Vietnam now has another position in the eyes of international donors. After more than 20 years receiving ODA from international partners, Vietnam’s economy has strongly shifted from a least developed country (LDC) to a middle-income economy. Therefore, the Consultative Group (CG) meeting was renamed to the Vietnam Development Partnership Forum (VDPF). At this VDPF, leaders will focus deeper dialogues about medium-term challenges in Vietnam’s socioeconomic development strategy. Minister Vinh said major donors for Vietnam like the World Bank (WB), Japan, and the European Union (EU) pledged to provide renewed support for Vietnam in the coming time. But the difference of the working agenda of this meeting will be discussed in bilateral form. Another change is that, apart from not discussing aids at VDPF, the allocation of ODA will be more closely and rigorously managed. ODA recipients will not be entitled to receive 100 percent of preferences as before but they must have counterpart funds or have the ability to partially repay the loan. Currently Vietnam is at the threshold of public debt ceiling. If it cannot select projects that have the capability of repaying debts, Vietnam must make an effect on them, not borrowing at any cost. Before these changes, he added that Vietnam has received aids in the form of ‘subsidy’ for a long period and this is the time to have a more independent use of aids. This is the time to change and adapt to new capital flows… [Read full story]