On February 22, Minister of Finance Hồ Đức Phớc met with Mr. Shantanu Chakraborty – Country Director of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vietnam.
According to Minister Phớc, ADB is currently funding many projects in Vietnam such as: Basic Infrastructure Project for Comprehensive Development of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri provinces; Urban Railway Line 3 project; Connecting the central region of the Mekong Delta – connecting National Highway 91 and bypass Long Xuyen project…
During the cooperation process, there are some challenges between the two parties that need to be resolved and unified in terms of legal regulations related to the provisions of the financier and the regulations of Vietnam. The Ministry of Finance is actively coordinating with relevant agencies to propose amending the Bidding Law, Decree No. 114/2021/ND-CP and related documents to speed up project preparation, promoting the project implementation process to be faster and more efficient.
“ADB has always been an important partner supporting the Government of Vietnam through providing policy advice and financial resources to implement projects, infrastructure in Vietnam. The Ministry of Finance is urgently coordinating with relevant authorities to propose to amend, extend projects that are within the deadline,” highlighted the Minister.
Minister Hồ Đức Phớc presents souvenir gifts to Mr. Shantanu Chakraborty during the working session.
Mr. Shantanu Chakraborty – ADB Country Director – highly appreciates the progress of implementing some ADB-funded projects in Vietnam. Mr. Shantanu Chakraborty hopes that ADB will resume lending activities to the Government of Vietnam in the coming time, including some projects from the list of ODA-funded, foreign concessional loans for the Mekong Delta region. Regarding challenges that arise during the cooperation process between the two sides, ADB will continue to coordinate with Vietnam, the Ministry of Finance to find solutions to overcome.
ADB’s resources, especially concessional loans, are extremely important resources to concentrate on development investment. From 2021 to now, Vietnam’s ODA loans from international organizations (WB, JICA, KOICA,…) have decreased. Vietnam’s public debt in 2021 is about 43.1% of GDP and now it has decreased to about 37% of GDP.
In the period of 2024-2026, ADB’s project list in Vietnam includes 23 projects, with a total value of nearly US $4 billion. However, the ability to mobilize loans in this period depends largely on the progress of completing domestic investment procedures of the projects.
So far, ADB has committed 456 loans, grants, and technical assistance to Vietnam’s public sector with a total value of $16.5 billion. The total disbursement value of loans and non-refundable grants for Vietnam is $11.96 billion.
