The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has funded Vietnam a total of US$16 billion so far, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh said at the meeting with the bank’s Vice President Stephen Groff in Hanoi on November 8.
Deputy PM Pham Binh Minh receives ADB's Vice President Stephen Groff in Hanoi. Photo: Chinhphu.vn
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All ADB’s funding for Vietnam is soft loans.
The deputy PM said that Vietnam has attempted to make the ADB’s financial support effective and completed legal framework on drawing and using preferential loans and official development assistance (ODA).
Groff pledged to continue seeking other financial sources to help Vietnam actualize its sustainable growth targets once the country is no longer to receive the bank’s credits from 2019
Vietnam is no longer eligible to receive zero or very low interest credit by the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) since July 1, 2017 and the ADB’s Asian Development Fund (ADF) for lower-income developing member countries (DMCs) from January 2019.
Do Thien Anh Tuan, a lecturer at the Fulbright University Vietnam, said that Vietnam needs to choose foreign lenders once the country graduates from preferential ODA. The government should carefully negotiate with the lenders in order to get suitable loans for socio-economic development programs, he explained.
The government must reject any non-financial terms like conditions of buying materials or using laborers for the projects as the lenders have rights to give out terms relating to interest and grace period only, he warned.
