This year’s Overview of Official Development Assistance in Viet Nam contains two main sections. The first section provides a detailed analysis of ODA trends in Viet Nam during 1993-2000. The second section gives some preliminary indications of developments in 2001 and analyses some recent developments related to ODA implementation issues including the new ODA Decree 17.

Donor support for Viet Nam’s development and reform policies remains strong, which is reflected in the substantial ODA pledges made in the eight Consultative Group (CG) meetings held between 1993 and 2000. At the last CG in December 2000, donors pledged an amount of some US$2.2 billion for 2001. Annual ODA disbursements in Viet Nam increased to just over US$1.6 billion in 2000, and further to an estimated US$1.75 billion in 2001. The country experienced steady growth in ODA throughout the 1990s and disbursements in 2000 rose by some 20 per cent compared to the previous year. Half of this increase can be attributed to the Japanese disbursement of a loan under the Miyazawa Initiative of 20 billion Japanese yen (US$174 million) significantly boosting financial assistance for private sector promotion, SOE reform and trade liberalization. The increase in disbursements was fairly broad-based across sectors – the largest being infrastructure followed by policy and institutional development, and human development.