ADB Pledges US$1.5 Bln for Vietnam Next Year

Ayumi Konishi, President of the Asian Development Bank has said that the ADB has pledged to increased ODA loans to US$1.5 billion from US$1.35 billion for Vietnam next year to support its economic development plans to become medium earner.

 

Mr Ayumi Konishi also pointed out bottlenecks of Vietnam’s economy including underdeveloped infrastructure systems, ineffective financial intermediaries and lack of high-quality workers.

 

Underdeveloped infrastructure systems are impeding tax policies and dissuade production and investments in Vietnam, the ADB president said.

 

The ADB will focus on three areas supporting small and medium enterprises, affiliates under the state-owned corporations and the local financial sector, he said.

 

He also raised concerns over Vietnam’s gloomy outlook for 2009 due to the crisis, predicting that FDI, remittances and foreign tourist arrivals will be impacted.

 

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has said that Vietnam expects US$5.2 billion in official development assistance aids to be pledged by donors at this CG meeting, which will bring the total ODA from 2006 to 2009 to US$16 billion, Vietnam News Agency-run News said Thursday. (Banking Times, News)