VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam’s public debt has increased steadily over the past three years while the public debt supervision process still has shortcomings, said Hoang Hai, deputy director of the Debt Management and Foreign Finance Department under the Ministry of Finance.

Speaking at a seminar under the framework of Vietnam Finance 2013 on Tuesday, Hai said Vietnam’s public debt was over VND1,600 trillion in 2012 compared to nearly VND1,400 trillion in 2011 and over VND1,100 trillion in 2010.

However, the ratio of public debt over gross domestic product (GDP) did not increase strongly, staying at 56.8%, 54.9% and 55.6% in 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Concerning bad debt structure in 2012, local authority debt accounted for 1%, government debt 79% and government-backed debt 20%. In terms of creditors, bond investors accounted for 28%, Japan 17%, World Bank 13%, the State budget balance 9%, Asian Development Bank (ADB) 8%, social insurance 5% and others 20%.

The nation’s public debt strategy is that total public debt is less than 65% of GDP by 2020, Hai said.

Commenting on supervision over public debt and foreign debt of the Ministry of Finance and some related agencies, Hai said supervisors have to work manually as there is no specific software to process some steps. Automation of the supervision process is still in its infancy.

The Ministry of Finance has yet to build up a common database for debt supervision. Besides, there is no software for management and risk evaluation.

Source: SGT