The 2011 Consultative Group Meeting of Donors for Vietnam opened in Hanoi on Tuesday with the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, World Bank Director Victoria Kwakwa and representatives of ministries, embassies, international organizations and non-governmental organizations in Vietnam.

Entitled ‘Promoting economic restructuring and poverty reduction”, the meeting focused on a wide range of issues including Vietnam’s macro-economic situation this year and directions for next year as well as economic restructure measures. Restructuring the banking and financial sector, strengthening public welfare system in Vietnam and ODA allocation for Vietnam’s socio-economic development goals will also be high on the agenda. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung addressed the event: “Vietnam will do its utmost to bring into full play internal force for socio-economic development. We hope to continue receiving more efficient assistance and support of the international community and donors. Vietnam pledges to use foreign aids  effectively and disbursement of the ODA funds for next year will be done more quickly and  effectively”.

Vietnam’s development partners including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank said that 2011 is a difficult year for the country’s economy, but acknowledged the Vietnamese government’s achievements in the macro-economic management, and inflation control. Over the past 4 months, the inflation rates have increased less than 1% while the public debts are estimated at 54.6% - a relatively safe level. In the context of the narrowed state budget, spending for social welfare is forecast to rise by about 20%. The number of poor households has reduced by 2% this year.  Ayumi Konishi is Director of the Asian Development Bank in Vietnam: “2011 was a difficult year for global economies and regional policy makers have to be alert to curb the flow of capital and persistent inflation pressure. In the environment, Vietnam deserves great credits for successfully sustaining tight macro-economic policies which have helped stabilize the foreign exchange market, foreign reserve and slow inflation. Vietnam must maintain tight macro-economic policies until its inflation is firmly anchored and confidence of donors is restored”.

Development partners also agreed to work closely with Vietnam to achieve its development goals through their ODA commitments in infrastructure, poverty reduction, climate change response and environment.

International donors have committed a total of US$7.386 billion in official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam next year, according to Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh. At a press conference after the CG meeting, Minister Vinh described the result  as positive as some European countries are in public debt crisis and Vietnam has become a middle income nation.