India to Increase ODA for Vietnam Next Years

India would increase official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam in the coming time, in addition to $100 million informed in the meeting of Indian and Vietnamese presidents, Indian Financial Minister Pranab Mukherjee said. Mukherjee made the commitment at a recent meeting with Vietnamese Minister of Finance Vuong Dinh Hue during the official visit to India of the Vietnamese high-level delegate leaded by President Truong Tan Sang. He also noted that India will provide additional preferential credits for Vietnam to develop infrastructure and import equipment and technology from India.
India is paying attention to the Vietnamese government’s policies for using ODA as corresponding capital in its development plans, especially public-private partnership (PPP) projects for infrastructure development, he added. The Indian Financial Ministry was very interested in Vietnamese policy to enforce cooperation in infrastructure projects and that Vietnam would give priorities to the Indian investors, he added. Indian companies had injected a total of $225.03 million into 58 projects in Vietnam as of Aug 20, ranking 28th among investors in the Southeast Asian country. A number of Indian companies are seeing Vietnam as a hub for reaching out to the whole ASEAN region and many of them are coming to explore the Southeast Asian market. (Thoi bao Ngan hang –Banking Times Oct 17 p4, nhandan.com.vn Oct 15, http://www.mof.gov.vn Oct 14)