Vietnam appreciates the support of international donors.

Prime Minister: "Vietnam will always respect and effectively manage and use ODA capital sources - Vietnam will not disappoint your trust"

ODA capital has made an important contribution to Vietnam's socio-economic development achievements - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung emphasized at the ceremony celebrating 20 years of development cooperation between Vietnam and donors taking place this morning, October 17 in Hanoi with the participation of over 300 delegates from ministries, sectors, localities, international organizations and donors in Vietnam.

Effective use and management of ODA capital

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung emphasized that over the past 20 years, the governments of donor countries, international financial institutions, international organizations and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have always given Vietnam strong support, enormous resources and valuable technical assistance to help us successfully achieve our national development and innovation goals.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung

“For us, your support is not only valuable capital when Vietnam was still poor, technical support, development policy advice when Vietnam was still facing many difficulties in economic transformation, but also imbued with friendship, humanity, and the spirit of mutual community support. We are truly touched that the help comes not only from governments and sponsoring organizations but also from the contributions of many - many people, when your country is also facing many difficulties of the economic crisis, the severe consequences of natural disasters...” – the Prime Minister emphasized.

The Prime Minister said that Vietnam has used ODA capital mainly focusing on areas such as: supporting macro-financial balance; investing in developing economic and social infrastructure, especially transportation, electricity, irrigation, urban and rural infrastructure; developing healthcare, education and human resource training; developing agriculture combined with hunger eradication and poverty reduction; protecting the environment and responding to climate change, etc.

ODA capital has also effectively supported Vietnam in perfecting its policy system, strengthening institutional capacity, administrative reform, economic transformation, international economic integration; human resource development; technology transfer, knowledge and advanced management experience, etc. Through the implementation of programs and projects, ODA capital has contributed to improving production capacity and competitiveness of a number of industries such as creating favorable conditions and environment to promote trade, investment and development of the private economic sector; enhancing international economic integration.

Recalling this moment 20 years ago, when the international donor community officially resumed aid, Vietnam was still a poor, underdeveloped country, and today, with its own internal strength, along with the effective use of very important support resources from the international community, Vietnam has strived to successfully transform and develop into a middle-income developing country.

The Prime Minister believes that in the coming time, Vietnam will continue to receive stronger and more effective cooperation from international friends to support Vietnam in consolidating its achievements and continuing to develop the country sustainably and prosperously. At the same time, Vietnam will also actively contribute to supporting countries and partners in the international community to develop and prosper together.

Vietnam will not disappoint the trust of donors.

Looking back on the past, the Prime Minister said that, besides the positive results mentioned above, the process of managing and using ODA in Vietnam still has many shortcomings and limitations. That is, the capacity to absorb national aid is not high, the progress of implementation and disbursement of ODA capital is still slow compared to the plan, domestic procedures are still entangled, different from the regulations of international donors.... With the efforts and determination of the Government and the effective support and coordination of international donors, I believe that these shortcomings and limitations have been and are being overcome, improved well and effectively.

The Prime Minister gave some lessons learned for better cooperation between Vietnam and donors in the coming time:

Firstly, the country's ownership of development policies and objectives with the agreement and support of development partners. This is a factor demonstrating the spirit of autonomy, strongly promoting one's own internal strength and is an important factor in forming an effective development cooperation partnership.

Second, ensure “counterpart resources”. Ensuring timely and appropriate counterpart resources is a demonstration of the Government’s efforts and high responsibility in development cooperation partnerships.

Third, creating a favorable legal environment, approaching international standards. Regulations on ODA management and use must be increasingly consistent, clear, transparent and in harmony with the regulations of donors, which is an important factor for the effective implementation of ODA programs and projects.

Fourth, improving the quality of development policy dialogue: In the new development context (replacing the CG Conference), the annual Vietnam Development Partnership Forum (VPDF) focuses on policy dialogue and expands the participation of parties, connecting policy dialogue at the sectoral level with the national level.

The Prime Minister emphasized that Vietnam is implementing the 10-year Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2011-2020, focusing on three strategic breakthroughs in institutional reform, synchronous infrastructure development and human resource development in conjunction with rapid and sustainable growth model transformation and economic restructuring.

The Vietnamese Government advocates first and foremost maximizing internal resources, expanding the participation of public and private actors for development, and at the same time implementing a proactive policy of deep and comprehensive international integration to mobilize external resources. In particular, ODA resources always play an important role in supporting the implementation of development priorities and strategic breakthroughs, including national target programs, programs and projects on infrastructure development, policy building and institutional development, capacity building, health care for people, environmental protection, climate change response and green growth, etc.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung affirmed that “The Vietnamese Government will always respect and effectively manage and use ODA capital from the international community - Vietnam will not disappoint your trust.”

On the solid foundation of the development partnership that has been built and tested over the past 20 years, the Prime Minister believes that the cooperation between Vietnam and the international donor community will continue to develop more strongly and effectively to support Vietnam in consolidating its development achievements - avoiding the "middle income trap", continuing to develop Vietnam sustainably and prosperously. At the same time, Vietnam will also actively contribute to supporting other countries and partners in the international community to develop together.

At the ceremony, representatives of the World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), Japan, France and South Korea representing the donor community in Vietnam highly appreciated the socio-economic achievements and poverty reduction that Vietnam has achieved over the past 20 years, and the good development cooperation relationship that has been diligently cultivated by the Vietnamese Government and donors.

Delegates attending the Celebration saw that although Vietnam has achieved the development level of a middle-income country, it has only reached the lowest level of the group of middle-income countries and Vietnam is currently facing many difficulties and challenges on the path of development.

Delegates expressed their firm belief that on the foundation of the partnership that has been built and developed well between Vietnam and donors in the past time, with the mindset, orientation and development cooperation policies in the new development context of Vietnam and the global development cooperation context in the spirit of the Busan Partnership Document on effective development cooperation, this partnership will continue to develop strongly, deeply and firmly./.

According to vov.vn - LT