Aid-dependent Vietnam asked international donors on Tuesday to step up their support to help it maintain high growth until 2010, a period in which Hanoi wants to make huge investments of 140 billion US dollar (868 milliarder DKR), reports the World Bank press review.
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan said increased aid would help the Southeast Asian country’s economy grow between 7,5 percent and 8 percent annually in the next five years after likely record growth of 8,4 percent this year.
Vietnam aimed to raise investment for development to 40 percent of gross domestic product in the five years ending 2010 from an average 37,5 percent in the 2001-2005 period, Khoan told a World Bank-chaired Consultative Group (CG) meeting in Hanoi.
Donors (among them Denmark) are expected to announce fresh pledges at the end of the meeting on Wednesday.
Khoan told donors that, “Vietnam will strive to escape the status of underdevelopment by increasing its GDP per capita from 640 at present to 1.000 US dollar (6.200 DKR) by 2010, and in the next five years the country will fully integrate into the world economy by joining the World Trade Organization.”
Foreign funds, which are expected to amount to 49 billion dollar during that five-year period, will include official development assistance amounting to 11 billion dollar, direct foreign investment, indirect foreign investment and government bonds, which will be issued in overseas markets.
Vietnam is estimated to have attracted 5,2 billion dollar in foreign direct investment this year, up from more than 3 billion last year, and the trend is expected to continue, Khoan said.
Klaus Rohland, Country Director of the World Bank, lauded the dent on poverty as well as the passage of numerous laws. – Vietnam has been another success story over the last five years, he said also noting challenges as it moves towards becoming an industrialized country.
The World Bank has said donors are unlikely to decrease significantly the amount of aid compared with last years 3,4 billion dollar. A communist party congress due in mid-2006 will set out the political and economic guidelines for the next several years. Vietnam will also launch its next five-year plan for the period until 2010.
By 2010, Vietnam targets to halve its poverty rate, currently at 24 percent of the population.
During the two-day discussions, local authorities and donor agencies will look at Vietnams growth targets for 2006-10. – We have started two new channels to raise foreign funds: selling more shares in state-owned enterprises and issuing government bonds in the world markets, and our results are positive so far, Khoan said.
– We started entering a market-oriented economy from 1986, we overcame a social-economic crisis in 2005 and we will build all the basic markets for the economy by 2010, he added.
Vietnam News Brief Service adds that Vietnam disbursed 1,52 billion dollar worth of the official development assistance (ODA) capital in the first eleven months of this year, reaching 82 percent of the annual plan, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The largest sources were disbursed from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank with combined capital of 1,15 billion, accounting for 85 percent of total disbursement.
In the January-November period, Vietnam acquired a total 2,15 billion dollar of ODA capital via agreements signed with foreign donors. Of the figure, 1,77 billion came from loans and 385 million from non-refundable sources.
Vietnam is one of the worlds biggest ODA country recipients. It also considers ODA funds as an important part of the total State budget-based capital.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
