International donors have pledged to provide nearly USD6.5 billion in official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam in 2013, a figure which is down nearly USD1 billion from last year.
The CG Meeting will be changed to the Vietnam Development Partnership Forum next year
According to Minister of Planning and Investment, Bui Quang Vinh, the commitments were made at the last term of the 2012 Consultative Group (CG) Meeting, which closed in Hanoi on December 10.
Minister Bui Quang Vinh said the figure of USD6.5 billion is still significant in the context of the global economic downturn and Euro zone debt crisis, adding that this is a priority for Vietnam.
The Vietnamese Government will work to use the ODA effectively, he noted.
Japan’s committed USD2.6 billion, the EU with EUR743.16 million (USD958.7 million), including EUR261.5 million (USD337.3 million) by France. Other pledges were not disclosed.
The minister added that, beginning next year, the CG Meeting will be changed to the Vietnam Development Partnership Forum (VDPF), co-chaired by the World Bank (WB) and the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Currently, most of donors have individual ODA commitments along with negotiations. So the CG meetings are no longer sufficient. The VDPF will be an expansion on the CG meetings so as to include all the dialogue between donors and the Government, said Victoria Kwakwa, WB Country Manager in Vietnam.
Sanjay Kalra, the IMF representative in Vietnam, said that in 2009, Vietnam officially became a middle-income country. However, he added that, if the nation does not maintain sound economic policy in the future, Vietnam could fall into what has been widely called the "middle income trap".
One of the challenges facing Vietnam is the lack of a skilled work force. This should be one of the main priorities when it comes to the designing of economic policy looking towards the year 2020, he said.