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WB lends Vietnam $350 mln to improve public investment
The World Bank (WB) has approved a $350 million loan for Vietnam to help improve the efficiency of its public investment program.
The major part of the financing ($ 262.7 million) comes from the International Development Association, the WB’s concessional lending arm for low income countries, and the rest ($ 87.3 million) come from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the WB’s resource window for middle income countries.
The program, which began in the midst of global economic crisis in 2009, was to help the country avoid adverse impacts of the crisis.
The overall goal of the program is to support a series of policy measures that are expected to strengthen the management of public investment in Vietnam.
It will be implemented through boosting a 4-step investment cycle including project selection, project implementation, financial management and oversight.
This operation focuses in particular on the project implementation and financial management of public investments, including issues in environmental screening, bidding transparency, conflict of interest, dispute resolution, environmental management, reporting and control, administrative costs, environmental budgets, payment and disbursement, subsidies and guarantees, and monitoring and evaluation.
The program also facilitates infrastructure development in Vietnam by developing basic legal framework for PPP projects.
The first tranche of this operation amounting to $ 500 million was approved by the Bank in December 2009.
“Since the country is facing enormous demand for infrastructure development in the coming years, strengthening the project cycle will play a key role in ensuring a high quality of public investment.” said Victoria Kwakwa, the World Bank’s Country Director for Vietnam.
“We encourage the Government to continue the to reform program, especially in the SOE sector, in order to achieve higher productivity of state invested capital,” she added.
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