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SBV Governor praises active donors
Vietnam’s achievements in socio-economic development and poverty reduction are attributed to great contributions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), affirmed Nguyen Van Giau, Party Central Committee member and Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
In an article published in Nhan Dan (People) daily on September 1, Giau said for developing countries in Asia like Vietnam , the three international financial institutions are the most important providers of official development assistance (ODA) capital.
Since it resumed credit relations with IMF, WB and ADB in 1993, Vietnam has received more and more efficient financial and technical assistance from the three institutions, Giau said.
Of the total of 42.438 billion USD pledged by the international community for the country in the 1993-2007 period, the three organisations contributed approximately 11 billion USD as preferential aid to 130 projects and over 480 million USD as non-refundable aid.
Particularly, with their big and long-term loans WB and ADB have made considerable contributions to Vietnam ’s socio-economic development over the past 15 years.
Both organisations have concentrated on the country’s priority fields such as agriculture and rural development, irrigation, energy, urban and rural infrastructure, transport, health care and education.
Their projects helped effectively improve infrastructure and social services, strengthen institutions, develop human resources and manage natural resources, according to the SBV Governor.
Vietnam ’s achievements in economic reform laid foundations for the country’s progresses in hunger elimination and poverty alleviation, improving people’s living conditions. In this regard, the IMF, WB and ADB’s contributions are undeniable, Giau said.
From 1993 to 2007, the country’s poverty rate sharply decreased from 58 percent to 14.7 percent.
The organisations’ targets have been specified in various programmes and projects, particularly the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), the WB’s Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC), and the WB and ADB’s loans for poor rural areas.
The three institutions also assisted the Vietnamese Government in developing Vietnam’s Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (CPRGS), a combination in targets and solutions of the country’s ten-year Socio-Economic Development Strategy (2001-2010) and the five-year Socio-Economic Development Plan (2006-2010) towards sustainable growth, hunger elimination and poverty reduction.
In addition, the organisations helped Vietnamese government agencies improve officials’ capacity through financing personnel training programmes.
They also provided valuable technical assistance, helping Vietnamese organisations approach international standards, Giau said.
According to the SBV Governor, the Vietnamese government and donors have been actively working together to simplify procedures for ODA projects and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ODA management and use.
VNA
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