International donors pledged to provide Vietnam with $7.905 billion in official development assistance (ODA) in 2011, just 2% lower than last year’s record high of $8 billion. Despite a slight drop, international donors’ ODA commitment for Vietnam in 2011 is still quite high, state media reported Dec 9. The World Bank (WB) is the biggest sponsor with around $2.6 billion, followed by Japan with $1.76 billion, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with $1.5 billion, the South Korea with $411 million, and other non-governmental organizations with $270 million. The Southeast Asian country has received a total ODA commitment of $56 billion so far, excluding this year’s pledged aids. Of the sum, $30 billion or nearly 53% has been disbursed. Besides impressive achievements in economic development, it is necessary for Vietnam to handle poor infrastructure, weak human resources, low competitiveness, ineffective institutions, high inflation and trade gap, WB Country Director Victoria Kwakwa said. As a middle-income country, Vietnam may face some difficulties in realizing its millennium development goals on environment protection and HIV/AIDS prevention because the country will surely obtain smaller non-refundable aid and other preferential loans, Kwakwa noted. At the meeting, Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc affirmed that Vietnam and its partners are striving to find out proper solutions to handle the situation in the coming years. The Vietnamese government has taken drastic ways to ensure public debts at safe levels while perfecting its legal system and institutions regarding ODA and PPP to diversify sources of capital, Phuc added. Vietnam’s economy is likely to grow 6.7% this year, compared to a slow expansion of 5.32% last year. The country is, however, still facing the problem of high inflation. (sggp.org.vn Dec 9, www.phapluattp.vn [1] Dec 9, chinhphu.vn Dec 8)
