ODA disbursement estimated to hit record rate

Bãi Cháy Bridge, an ODA project in Hạ Long City of the northern province of Quảng Ninh

Việt Nam plans to disburse US $1.9 billion of ODA capital in 2009 and in reality, about US $1.896 billion were disbursed in the first ten months. The MPI’s Foreign Economic Relations Department estimated that the whole-year disbursement of ODA capital can be US $3 billion, the ever highest figure since Việt Nam started to receive ODA.

Since November 1993, Việt Nam has received the total committed value of over US $48.4 billion and disbursed US $22.12 billion.

In the meeting 2009 between the Government’s ODA Working Team and the World Bank (WB), eight fundamental “barriers” to the disbursement of ODA were named, including prolonged approval of procedures at the ministerial level; slow “kick-start” of projects; inharmonious regulation at central and local levels; lack and delay of counterpart funding, including money for site clearance and resettlement; and overlapped supervision over payments and spending.

The MPI asked relevant agencies and local authorities to speed up administrative reforms, simplify procedures of receiving and realizing ODA capital; empower project owners to assess and approve bidding results; and coordinate with donors to allocate sufficient counterpart funding for ODA projects and programs.

It was also necessary to establish and operate systems of monitoring and assessing national-level ODA projects, so as to map out proper policies and measures to accelerate the schedule and raise the disbursement rate, noted the MPI.

The total value of ODA signed at the CG 2009 meeting is estimated to stand around US $5.07 billion. And the disbursement figure for 2010 can reach US $2.47 billion, up 30% compared to the plan 2009.

The WB, Asian Development Bank and Japan are still the biggest donors.