Expectations of comprehensive cooperation in the new period
On the morning of April 15, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang welcomed and worked with Mr. Scott Morris - Vice Chairman of Asian Development Bank (ADB) in charge of East Asia, Southeast Asia and Pacific, and the ADB mission on the occasion of attending the P4G Summit in Vietnam.
At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Van Thang affirmed that ADB was an important development partner of Vietnam for more than three decades, contributing about 30% of the total ODA and preferential loans to the investment projects of the Government of Vietnam. These loans mainly focus on key areas such as transportation, agriculture, health, education, sustainable development and climate change response.
The Minister suggested that ADB continue to accompany Vietnam, especially in mobilizing new loans for strategic infrastructure projects, digital transformation, green conversion and sustainable growth. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance pledged to coordinate closely with ADB to accelerate the implementation of the implementation programs and projects.
On the ADB side, Mr. Scott Morris expressed his thanks to the Government of Vietnam for its strong cooperation with ADB for over 30 years. He highly appreciated Vietnam's development orientations and affirmed that ADB is ready to accompany through expanding the sponsorship scale, including lending to government and private sector without guarantee. He also noted that in the last 3 years, the loan proportion of the private sector in Vietnam is still low compared to economic potential and needs to be promoted.
Accelerate reform to accelerate disbursement of ADB loans
However, both sides also frankly acknowledged that the progress of the implementation of ADB loan projects over the past time is still slow, entangled in many stages from project preparation, approval, signing the agreement to disbursement. These delays stem from both subjective and objective reasons. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance affirmed that ADB will review and find solutions to improve the efficiency of capital use, accelerate disbursement, especially in the context of the economy in need of strong financial motivation to achieve growth targets.
In order to remove obstacles in legal procedures, the Government of Vietnam is directing and revising many regulations related to the Law on Public Investment, the State Budget Law, the Law on Public Debt Management, and Decree 114/2021/ND-CP, in the direction of increasing decentralization, decentralization and simplification of procedures to shorten the project preparation time.
Minister Nguyen Van Thang added that the loan agreement for the CRIEM2 project - Developing climate change infrastructure in Phu Yen and Quang Tri provinces - has completed the procedure and is expected to be signed in 2025. This will be a positive signal that opens a new period of cooperation between the two sides.
In addition to the government -level cooperation, Minister Nguyen Van Thang also emphasized the importance of ADB loans for the private sector - essential resources to promote sustainable economic development. The Ministry of Finance pledged to continue working closely with ADB to concretize cooperation programs, technical support, as well as promote regional cooperation in the near future.
