vietnam donors
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Donors Pledge $2.4 Billion for VietnamHANOI (Reuters) - International donors on Saturday pledged $2.4 billion to support reform and development in Vietnam in the coming year -- the same amount as pledged last year.
The fresh pledges were made at an annual meeting of the World Bank-chaired Consultative Group for Vietnam, which groups about 45 countries and donor agencies.
Donors at the two-day conference praised Vietnam's progress in poverty reduction and in improving environment for the private sector, but stressed that it now needed to push ahead strongly with implementing reforms, especially in trade, the banking sector and in ensuring good governance.
A World Bank press release said delegates had emphasized that now was the time to convert "vision to action" and that Vietnam needed to act to implement its broad program of structural reforms.
"In the light of the global slowdown, Vietnam now has a window of opportunity to act quickly to gain in competitiveness and position itself for the decade ahead," said Andrew Speer, World Bank country manager for Vietnam.
"In addition to gaining a reputation for stability, one of Vietnam's key advantages, is the energy, enthusiasm and industriousness of its people. Liberating that energy will be crucial to Vietnam's path to prosperity."
The Belgian ambassador to Vietnam, Philippe Dartois, speaking on behalf of the EU, said:
"An absolutely key part of the overall economic reform process is governance....major efforts are needed to build democratic governance in Vietnam to improve transparency and accountability of the government to promote independence and predictability of the judiciary, and to fight against corruption at all levels."
The was no place on the formal agenda for human rights, despite a plea on Monday by Human Rights Watch, which said the issue should be given equal prominence to commercial reform.
Several delegations did broach rights, however, with the European Union welcoming improvements in individual freedoms but expressing concern about continuing curbs on freedom of opinion and religion, the situation of ethnic minorities, as well as the use of the death penalty.
The U.S. paper was more oblique, saying Vietnam's economic potential would be enhanced if all citizens, regardless of their gender, religion or ethnicity, had the right to participate in economic, civil and political life.
Donors called on Hanoi to ensure private enterprise was given equal treatment in the economy, particularly when it came to public procurement and in access to financing and land. They said faster financial reform would help the private sector.
They also expressed concern about the slow pace of some important structural reforms, including the restructuring of inefficient and resource-draining state enterprises.
A report issued by the U.N. Development Program said Vietnam needed to be careful to avoid a possible debt trap and aid dependency.
It put foreign debt at around 45 percent of GDP, calling this "significant, but still quite manageable and sustainable."
By David Brunnstrom
HANOI, Dec 8 (Reuters) - International donors were expected to pledge about another two billion dollars to support development in Vietnam on Saturday but want the country to do more to speed reform and fight corruption.
About 45 international agencies and donor countries were to wrap up a two-day annual meeting of the Consultative Group for Vietnam in the afternoon by announcing aid pledges for the coming year.
World Bank country manager Andrew Steer told reporters on Friday the donor mood was "positive", given progress on economic reform in the past year, but pledges were likely to be slightly down in dollar terms on last year's $2.4 billion, given a weaker Japanese yen.
The head of International Finance and Economic Cooperation at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said there would be no significant drop in Tokyo's pledges, despite pressure on it to be more cautious with taxpayers' money.
He said Vietnam has made great efforts to liberalise its market and integrate into the regional economy, but needed to streamline further its foreign investment procedures to compete with countries like China.
"They have great potential," he said. "Japanese investors are coming back with a little bit greater confidence, but it has to be strengthened further."
EU URGES BETTER GOVERNANCE
The European Union, in its statement to the conference, said that to step up Vietnam's reform process, major efforts were needed to build democratic governance.
It said there was a need to improve the transparency and accountability of government, promote independence and predictability of the judiciary and to fight corruption.
"Progess in these areas has a direct impact on aid volumes as well as on the effectiveness of aid," it said, adding it was ready to help foster improvements in such areas.
Donors also called on the government to ensure private enterprise was given equal treatment in the economy, particularly when it came to public procurement and in access to fiancing and land. They said faster financial sector reform would help private sector development.
They also expressed concern about the slow pace of some important structural reforms, including the restructuring of inefficient and resource draining state enterprises.
A report issued by the U.N. Development Programme, meanwhile, said Vietnam needed to be careful to avoid a possible debt trap and aid dependency.
It estimated foreign debt at around 45 percent of GDP, a level it called "significant, but still quite manageable and sustainable".
At the same time, it said further policy and institutional reform and development of a much healthier private sector were needed to help finance development through savings and taxes.
It said strategic but careful use of foreign money would be necessary given large amounts of public sector foreign borrowing planned in the next 10 years, a likely renewal of foreign investor and lender interest and possible financial inflows.
Steer told the conference the past year had seen "remarkable progress" in improving the environment for the private sector, with 1,000 new enterprises registered every month and it employing 70 percent more workers than two years ago.
But he stressed Vietnam needed now to push ahead strongly with implementing reforms it had approved, especially in trade, the banking sector and in ensuring good governance