Vietnam expects ADB to speed up ODA projects for Mekong Delta

Finance Minister Ho Duc Phoc was speaking during a meeting with ADB Vietnam director Shantanu Chakraborty in Hanoi on February 22.

Phoc noted that over the past years, ADB has always been an important partner supporting the Government of Vietnam through providing policy advice and financial resources to implement infrastructure development projects in Vietnam.

However, he said during the implementation there are also some problems that need to be resolved to meet the requirements of donors and the law.

The Ministry of Finance is actively coordinating with relevant agencies to propose competent authorities to amend the Bidding Law and other related documents in order to accelerate project implementation, stressed the minister.

Chakraborty for his part highly appreciated the progress of a number of projects using ADB loans in Vietnam, and expressed hope that ADB would resume lending activities to the Government of Vietnam in the near future, including projects on the list of official ODA funding and other foreign preferential loans for the Mekong Delta region.

ADB will continue to coordinate with the Vietnamese side, including the Ministry of Finance, to find solutions to arising problems, said the ADB country director.

There are 23 projects valued at nearly US$4 billion on ADB’s official ODA funding list for the 2024-2026 period. However, the disbursement of the funding depends heavily on progress to be made in completing domestic investment procedures.

To date, ADB has committed 456 loans, grants and technical assistance to Vietnam’s public sector with a total value of US$16.5 billion. The total value of disbursed loans and non-refundable aid to Vietnam is US$11.96 billion.