The prime minister has highlighted disbursing official development assistance (ODA) as the main mission of ministries and localities in the final months of this year.

The disbursement of public investment from the state budget has reached 60 percent, the highest ever level. The disbursement of ODA has also improved, but is still low.

A foreign specialist in an ODA (Official Development Assistance) project can receive VND500-700 million a month, while pay for a Vietnamese specialist is just tens of millions of VND.

New policies are expected to accelerate the recovery of the real estate market and lay a firm foundation for the market’s long-term development.

If the huge capital for public investment can be brought into the economy, Vietnam would be able to save GDP growth.

There were no new ODA projects signed during March according to a report sent to the Government by the Ministry of Planning and Investment on socio-economic performance during the first quarter of the year.

The Japanese Government will provide a non-refundable aid worth 1.88 billion JPY (16.84 million USD) for Ho Chi Minh City to upgrade its existing sewerage system using trenchless technologies.

The sluggish disbursement of public investment is attributable to the combination of three major factors.

The funding will focus on energy, environment, and vocational training in the next two years.

The Vietnamese government gives priority to the Vietnam – Japan strategic partnership.

The Ministry of Transport disbursed VND9.4 trillion for transport projects during the year to October, equivalent to 35.7% of the full-year target, while the remaining VND16.9 trillion has yet to be disbursed.

Inflows from emerging countries might fail to meet environmental protection requirements.

Of the fields of operation in Vietnam, Japan is interested in cooperation to support development not only for infrastructure systems and human resources, but also in agriculture, health care and environment. 

Starting October 15, the Ministry of Finance is scheduled to disclose the disbursement data on a 15-day basis at http://mof.gov.vn.

With the decision on canceling international bidding for the North-South expressway, the success or failure of the project now depends on the capability of domestic contractors and the credit to be provided.

The US-China trade war is giving opportunities to Vietnam to diversify material supply sources, increase imports from the US to reduce the trade surplus with the country, and reduce the trade deficit with China.

Domestic investors now have more opportunities to implement the eight component projects of the north-south expressway as the Ministry of Transport (MOT) has canceled open international bidding.

Commenting about the reliance of Vietnam’s economy on FIEs (foreign invested enterprises), one economist noted that “when FIEs sneeze, the Vietnamese economy catches a cold".

Vietnam is striving towards boosting the disbursement and use of ODA and concessional loans as both have become issues in recent times.

The slow disbursement of capital has stalled many projects, affecting socio-economic development.