This morning, December 6, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan and World Bank Country Director in Vietnam Mariam Sherman chaired the ISG 2024 online plenary conference with the theme "Orientation to prioritize the use of ODA capital and preferential loans for the agriculture and rural development sector in the period 2026-2030".
Delegates attending the conference at Quang Tri bridge point - Photo: Tran Tuyen
Speaking at the conference, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan pointed out the fact that Vietnam has become a middle-income country and no longer enjoys low interest rates. In addition, the number of projects, the value of ODA capital and preferential loans for the agricultural sector have decreased significantly; technical assistance and non-refundable capital have also decreased.
With the goal of building a modern, sustainable, highly competitive agricultural production sector; associated with environmental protection and climate change adaptation, Minister Le Minh Hoan emphasized the great need for cooperation with international partners, not only in terms of capital but also in terms of technical support, capacity building, and knowledge for development investment in the coming period. In particular, he hopes that the agricultural sector will receive the most preferential ODA loans to invest in infrastructure, improve the capacity of communities and farmer organizations.
Reporting at the conference, Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Do Anh Tuan said that in the period of 2021-2025, the total expected loan capital for new projects being prepared is about 2 billion USD, non-refundable capital is about 58 million USD, and counterpart capital is 478 million USD.
Of these, 5 projects have been approved by competent authorities with a total loan capital of about 750 million USD. The ratio of ODA capital in the total development investment capital of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has at times reached nearly 50%. Most of the ODA loans in recent times have been used for investment projects in infrastructure development, supporting production promotion, poverty reduction, livelihood improvement, climate change response, natural disaster prevention, etc.
However, the limitation of this source of capital is that the preparation process is often lengthy, the procedures are complicated, leading to slow progress in putting into use, contributing to reducing investment efficiency. Programs and projects are still localized by sub-sector, field, and region.
With the strategy for sustainable agricultural and rural development for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, the expected demand for ODA loans and preferential loans for the 2026-2030 period is about 2.46 billion USD.
World Bank (WB) Country Director in Vietnam Mariam Sherman assessed that in recent times, Vietnam has been a model with outstanding successes in using preferential ODA capital. Vietnam's demand for ODA loans is still very large, estimated at about 17 billion USD. WB wishes to provide more support through ODA loans, preferential loans and technical solutions for Vietnam to develop further.
In Quang Tri, a representative of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that ODA capital has added to investment capital for development, infrastructure construction, human resource training, technical assistance, livelihood support, contributing to promoting socio-economic development of the province, especially in the fields of agriculture and rural areas.
However, ODA capital and preferential loans are currently on a downward trend; ODA loans are gradually shifting to less preferential loans. Therefore, Quang Tri province proposes to use ODA capital and preferential loans for the agricultural sector in the period 2026-2030.
Tran Tuyen
Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/so-du-an-va-gia-tri-nguon-von-oda-cho-nganh-nong-nghiep-giam-190226.htm
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