Effective Use of ODA for Socio-economic Development

The ODA Mobilisation Board of Ha Giang has established a close linkage with the ministries and central agencies as well as embassies, international organisations such as ADB, World Bank. In particular, the Board has made great efforts to overcome difficulties and obstacles, including coordination to address problems in site clearance for Ngoc Linh intersection; giving advice to the Provincial People’s Committee to give an advance of VND11.53 billion for projects in infrastructure development in rural northern mountainous provinces and projects to improve irrigated agriculture; and giving advice to the Province about the targets for ODA counterpart fund from government bonds in 2014 to 11 projects with total allocated capital of VND50 billion.

 

To date, the province has 23 ongoing projects funded by ODA, of which 16 projects are administrated by the province, 7 projects by central ministries and agencies. In 2013 the province disbursed VND130 billion, accounting for over 61 percent of the plan. In the context of economic difficulties, the country continues to implement Resolution 11 of the Government to reduce public investment, the ODA is very important to supplement resources for development investment. Practice has proved that when the projects contributed significantly to improving agricultural, rural and urban infrastructure, such as Water Supply and Sanitation Project in Yen Minh and Tam Son town, and the Irrigation Upgrade Project in Ban Tan and Trung Thanh commune (Vi Xuyen), they drastically boost socio-economic development and reduce poverty sustainably. In particular, the projects to support the development of rural infrastructure such as: Road from km 21 to Bach Ngoc and Trung Thanh intersection (Vi Xuyen); upgrading and asphalting project from Trung Thanh (Vi Xuyen) to Tan Quang (Bac Quang), also contribute to creating favourable conditions for people to travel, exchange goods, and promote economic development in remote areas.

 

All levels and sectors in the province have actively approached and mobilised projects funded by ODA. In 13 programmes and projects, 1 project was assessed as feasible study which is "Sustainable forest management and biodiversity to reduce CO2 emissions" funded by German Development Bank under control of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development implemented in 7 years, commenced in 2014 with estimated capital of 20 million Euro, in which 15 million Euro comes from ODA. There are 3 projects whose portfolio was approved by the Prime Minister, 1 project which was signed implementation responsibilities contract. The remaining seven programmes and projects are in the process of mobilisation, in which the most prominent is the programme "Poverty reduction based on the development of Ha Giang goods" which is sponsored by IFAD. Project design team of IFAD has worked in the province, and so far completed initial project design report and is preparing for detailed design of the project. Total capital for the program is estimated at US$34 million, of which ODA fund is US$29 million.

 

Besides, Ha Giang also stands out as a focal point to propose to central ministries and agencies to implement the overall development programme in mountainous northeastern provinces (Tuyen Quang, Ha Giang, Cao Bang, Bac Kan, Lang Son) to attract ODA and other preferential loans in the 2014-2020 period.

 

However, the number of campaigned and attracted ODA projects for the province remains at small scale. Many member agencies lack information because they did not grasp the strategic orientations of the use of ODA from donors and were unclear about procedures and approaches leading to difficulties in attraction process. The collaboration between sectors and levels in implementation of the projects is improving, but still limited due to the lack of counterpart funds for implementation of the project and delay in clearance stages. Some sequences, investment principles and processes are not done properly, information reporting is not serious so when there is trouble, investors are not given timely advice. Although ODA working teams were established in member agencies, those agencies are only elected officials who worked part-time and unprofessionally, so advice to leaders at all levels was not good and the campaign results were not as desired. Along with that, the differences in processes and procedures between Vietnam and donors in the field of procurement policies and social security as compensation, site clearance and resettlement also create difficulties for the locality in implementing processes according to the set schedule.

 

To overcome these difficulties and shortcomings in the management, using and campaigning for ODA, Ha Giang authority has asked each sector, each district to approach at least one movement of ODA-funded projects. Besides, all levels and sectors should review the list of ongoing projects being mobilized and sub-headed to continue to attract, mobilize, manage as well as implement them better. The province should prepare all necessary conditions for the delegation of international organizations to conduct survey, design and evaluate projects. The last time, the province has conducted meetings and campaigned ODA donors and mobilized ODA in Hanoi, through which introducing donors about projects in need of investment as well as helping all levels and sectors in the province access to donors.