Int'l Donors for Vietnam to Meet in December

The 2005 Consultative Group Meeting gathering of ambassadors and representatives of countries and international organizations that provide donations for Vietnam will be held in Vietnam from December 6-7, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).

 

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan will lead a Vietnamese delegation to the year-end meeting, the ministry also said.

 

Statistics released by the MPI showed that donors have so far this year signed agreements to donate more than $2 billion worth of official development assistance (ODA) to Viet Nam, $1.7 billion of which is in the form of loans, and the rest in non-refundable aid.

 

In the first ten months of this year, over $1.3 billion worth of ODA was disbursed, fulfilling 74 per cent of the yearly plan, including more than $1.2 billion in loans and $175 million in non-refundable aid.

 

Of the disbursed capital, $965 million or 80 per cent were loans from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation.

 

Over the past 11 years, international donors pledged huge amounts of official development assistance totaling nearly $29 billion (15-20 per cent was non-refundable aid) for the country via CG meetings, of which around $20 billion has been concreted via agreements. However, only $14.139 billion (over $12 billion in loans) was put into use to date.

 

Vietnam is one of the world’s biggest ODA country recipients. It also considers ODA funds as an important part of the total State budget-based capital.