HANOI (AFP) — International donors on Friday pledged a record 5.4 billion dollars in official development assistance (ODA) to communist Vietnam for 2008, almost 20 percent more than this year.
World Bank country chief Ajay Chhibber said the grants and soft loans from nations, international development agencies and non-governmental organisations would help reduce poverty and protect the environment.
More than half of the funds will go to infrastructure such as highways, ports and energy facilities in the developing country that is experiencing more than eight percent economic growth and aims to reach middle income status by 2010.
Multilateral agencies made over 2.5 billion dollars in pledges -- with 1.3 billion dollars from the Asian Development Bank, 1.1 billion dollars from the World Bank and 90 million from United Nations agencies.
Japan topped the list among bilateral lenders, pledging 1.1 billion dollars, followed by a European Union total of 962 million dollars, South Korea with 286 million dollars and the United States with 114 million dollars.
International non-government organisations pledged 250 million dollars.
Foreign and Vietnamese officials said the pace of implementation would need to be sped up after less than two billion dollars were actually disbursed this year, in many cases due to delays caused by red tape.
However, Chhibber, speaking at the end of the two-day donors' meeting in Hanoi, said "Vietnam is making effective use of ODA. The rate of satisfactory outcomes of projects in Vietnam is higher than anywhere else in the world."
He said that many of the delays were due, in part, to the large proportion of infrastructure projects, saying: "When you commit for infrastructure projects, they take two to five years, sometimes longer."
Donors at the meeting complimented Vietnam on its rapid economic growth and poverty reduction but also urged it to speedily implement all its commitments after joining the World Trade Organisation this year.
The United States and European Union were among donors calling on Vietnam to do more to improve their human rights record, fight corruption and protect the environment, including helping global efforts against climate change.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
