by Trinh Anh Duc
19-12-2002
In 2002, Viet Nam's official development assistance (ODA) disbursement was estimated to have reached as much as 1.5 billion USD, up about 9 percent from 1.36 billion USD the previous year, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The 2002 estimate helped bring the total of ODA loans disbursed by the country in the 1993-2002 period to some 10.3 billion USD, the UN agency said in a report released at the 10th Consultative Group (CG) Meeting held in Ha Noi on December 10-11.
"Despite somewhat slower rate of disbursements last year, the gap between commitments and disbursements appears to have narrowed significantly in recent years," according to the report.
The report also recognised the need to increase ODA investments in further developing national capacities to identify, formulate, manage and implement major projects and programmes in order to facilitate the effective investment of existing and increased ODA in general. The areas where ODA investments would be continued comprise poverty reduction, health, education, rural infrastructure, human development as well as the non-state business sector.
"In terms of the ODA allocation by board catagories, the largest share of ODA funds continues to be allocated to large infrastructure projects. Infrastructure received 568 million USD or 42 percent of the total ODA funds last year," the report said.
It noted "Much greater investments are still needed in basic health, especially in rural areas. Child mortality rates remain high in places like Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Lang Son and Cao Bang, among others," the report said. It added "the Northern uplands, the north central coast and the Mekong delta received 43 percent of such directly disbursed ODA, considerably lower than their 70 percent share of poor people in the country".
Japan remained Viet Nam's largest donor in 2001, with a total disbursements of 321 million USD, followed by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), France, Denmark, UN, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and Britain, the report said.