ODA Disbursement Moves at Snail's Pace

The Joint Portfolio Performance Review meeting held in northern Hai Phong City May 23 focused on models to improve implementation of official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam in the future.

At the December 2006 Consultative Group meeting, international donors pledged an unprecedented US$4.4 billion to Vietnam, but the actual implementation of donor assistance continues to be slow. 

 

“All projects in Vietnam produce excellent results, but we also see delays at each stage of the project cycle and low disbursement. Annual disbursement averages 12-13 per cent, much lower than the regional average,” said Mr Laurent Msellati, the World Bank's Portfolio Manager in Vietnam.

 

Given the importance of infrastructure investment to Vietnam, this meeting focused particularly on bottlenecks in such key sectors as transport, energy, urban water/waster water, irrigation and rural water supply, as well as on projects in Ho Chi Minh City. A series of recommendations were discussed, including measures for fast track formulation, approval and implementation procedures for ODA projects. 

 

The meeting, attended by representatives of the Vietnamese Government and the five development banks active in Vietnam, namely the Asian Development Bank (ADB), French Development Agency (AFD), Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC), Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW) and the World Bank (WB), was held to develop an action plan improving implementation for infrastructure programmes. These five banks handle approximately 80 per cent of all ODA commitments to Vietnam.