The Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment and the World Bank (WB) are working to review the WB-funded projects and seek ways to accelerate implementation paces of those. Many WB-funded projects are being carried out at snail paces in Vietnam, Deputy Minister Cao Viet Sinh was quoted by the Dau tu newspaper as saying on Oct 8. Licensed in Nov 2005, customs modernization project has to date disbursed $1.8 million out of the total $65.9 million, Sinh cited it as a typical example for slow disbursement, adding tax administrative reform project is on boat with a disbursement rate accounting for only 0.4% of total loan. Other projects include financial system modernization, IT and communication development, infrastructure development in Mekong Delta and Hanoi urban infrastructure development. The deputy minister also pointed that slow site clearance, international bidding process and procedure inconsistence between Vietnam and the WB are major barriers for low disbursements. The WB provided a total aid of $10.4 billion for 93 programs and projects in the Southeast Asian country by late February this year, and $6.7 billion of which was disbursed. The bank pledged $2.498 billion in official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam this year and also announced to finance over $6 billion for the country to implement 44 programs and projects in the 2011-2013 fiscal years. (Dau tu – Investment Oct 8 p1)
