Vietnams Dialogue With Development Partners

Vietnam’s Dialogue With Development Partners

British Embassy Hanoi

December 2013

Summary

Overseas development assistance (ODA) still matters to Vietnam. Despite reaching middle income country status, Vietnam still faces serious challenges . We and others in the international community offer support.

Detail

 

The annual dialogue between the international donor community (this year as the Vietnam-Development Partners Forum) was attended by Vietnamese President and five of his ministers throughout; a clear demonstration of how much ODA matters to Vietnam.  Economic growth has slowed from a high of 8% to about 5%, which is not enough to sustain the country’s development. 

 

At the Vietnam-Development Partners Forum in early December 2013, the Vietnamese government set out the progress they had already made, such as bringing inflation under control and maintaining levels of FDI, but highlighted the challenges they still faced, including the global economic situation and climate change issues Vietnamese NGOs at the Forum also highlighted problems around the use of land. And the inequity of access to services faced by ethnic minorities, who make up a disproportionate percentage of Vietnam’s 15 million poor.

 

Development partners reminded the Vietnamese government that their focus was moving from poverty alleviation to capacity building and technical support as many donors, like DFID, planned to close their offices in Vietnam in the coming years. The international community pressed the government to implement a range of potentially transformative changes. The UK highlighted the need for action on Public Private Partnerships (PPP), including a new government decree, explaining that if done properly, PPP had the potential to generate substantial revenues for the public good. DFID has a PPP specialist working with the Public Procurement Agency to facilitate this process.  Picking on the recent Anti-Corruption Dialogue which the UK chaired on behalf of the donor community, we urged the government to develop a time-bound plan of action for implementation in the coming year. We also encouraged the government to sign up to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in 2014, as this would increase their revenue and deliver a more attractive environment for business.  We made the case for greater economic openness and transparency since evidence showed that these would lead to sustained poverty reduction and growth in prosperity.

 

The President picked up on these and other development partners’ points, giving undertakings to take action and highlighting plans to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2015; speed up state owned enterprise reform; revitalise planning on poverty.

 

 

Disclaimer

The purpose of the FCO Country Update(s) for Business (”the Report”) prepared by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is to provide information and related comment to help recipients form their own judgments about making business decisions as to whether to invest or operate in a particular country. The Report’s contents were believed (at the time that the Report was prepared) to be reliable, but no representations or warranties, express or implied, are made or given by UKTI or its parent Departments (the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)) as to the accuracy of the Report, its completeness or its suitability for any purpose. In particular, none of the Report’s contents should be construed as advice or solicitation to purchase or sell securities, commodities or any other form of financial instrument. No liability is accepted by UKTI, the FCO or BIS for any loss or damage (whether consequential or otherwise) which may arise out of or in connection with the Report.

Countries: Vietnam
Export Action Plan