Vietnam to Disburse USUS$11Bln Worth of ODA in 2005-10

Vietnam to Disburse USUS$11Bln Worth of ODA in 2005-10

Vietnam is striving to reach total official development assistance (ODA) loans disbursed of around USUS$11 billion between 2005-2010 in order to maintain high economic growth in the period, according to the Ministry of Planning & Investment (MPI).

The forecast amount of disbursed ODA loans in the 2005-10 will mainly come from commitments of international donors for Vietnam in the 2001-05, which totaled USUS$13.6 billion (disbursed only USUS$6.7 billion from 2001 until now), the MPI said.

According to the MPI’s estimates, there will be around USUS$1.7 billion worth of ODA loans put into use in 2005 (donors pledged USUS$3.44 billion for this year), USUS$2 billion in 2006 and USUS$2.2-2.3 billion annually for the following years.

MPI also predicted that ODA commitments by international donors for the country would gradually decrease in the coming years to some USUS$2.8 billion in 2010. Moreover, the ratio of Vietnam’s reciprocal capital will be higher, maybe over 30 per cent in 2010. This is very high pressure on the state coffer, the ministry said.

In the 1993-2004 period, Vietnam saw a very low rate of ODA disbursement, at around 48.8 per cent of the total USUS$29 billion pledged by international donors during 12 Consultative Group (CG) meetings (including USUS$20 billion concretized via agreements).

According to experts, Vietnam needs around USUS$1.8 billion of ODA capital to maintain a sustainable economic growth rate of around 7 per cent annually, however, the average ODA inflow into the country stood at only USUS$1.1 billion a year in the 1993-2003 period.

The Vietnamese government has recently announced that the country targeted total development investment in the 2006-2010 period to account for 37-38 per cent of the country’s GDP with 35-40 per cent of the total expected from overseas sources (mainly ODA and FDI inflows).
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