Viet Nam may mobilize US$370 million in ODA by year-end

From January to August, Viet Nam secured nearly US$450 million from ODA and foreign concessional loans. With the new inflows projected for the rest of the year, total mobilization in 2025 could approach US$820 million, matching the country's annual average of US$800 million to US$1 billion during the 2021-2025 period, except for 2022 when the figure dropped sharply due to COVID-19 impacts.

The Ministry of Finance reported that demand for foreign capital remains very high in 2025 and subsequent years as the country targets to launch major projects with spillover effects and transformative impacts.

To accelerate ODA implementation, the Government has doubled effort to reform the legal framework. Key changes include shortening project preparation time by replacing the requirement to submit project proposals to the Prime Minister with simplified loan proposal submissions, decentralizing approval authority, easing procedures for granting projects, and aligning capital allocation periods with disbursement schedules.

Most notably, Decree No. 242/2025/ND-CP—effective from September 10 and replacing Decrees 114/2021 and 20/2023—establishes a legal corridor for state-owned enterprises to access ODA and concessional loans, while also simplifying procedures for receiving non-refundable ODA.

During a recent meeting of the National Steering Committee for Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Preferential Loans, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son called on foreign donors to provide non-refundable ODA to support Vietnamese localities to strengthen their capacity to implement ODA and concessional loan projects as Viet Nam has recently implemented the two-tier government model and the promoted decentralization and delegation of power to localities.

He also requested central ministries and agencies to issue guidance and conduct training to strengthen the capacity of local authorities in carrying out the tasks delegated from the central to local levels, including in the use of ODA and concessional loans.

Since 1993, Viet Nam has attracted around US$80 billion in ODA and concessional loans for socio-economic development, poverty reduction, rural and agricultural development, infrastructure construction, and manpower training.

The ODA inflows provided an important source of capital for Viet Nam in her socio-economic development and made up 10 percent of her total social source for investment and development especially important areas like transport, power, irrigation, urban infrastructure, health, education, and climate change response.

Thanks to the source, Viet Nam has gradually perfected the legal system, improved management capacity, conducted technology transferring, raised business and production competence, and promoted trade and international integration./.