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Minister Ho Duc Phoc works with the JICA delegation

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Finance Ho Duc Phoc expressed his pleasure to welcome JICA Vice President Yamada Junichi and JICA Delegation for the visit and work at the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam.

Minister Ho Duc Phoc said that the Vietnamese Government highly appreciates the ODA loans worth JPY50 billion (equivalent to VND8,750 billion) for the “General Budget Support Program for Socio-economic Recovery and Development of Viet Nam Post-Covid-19 Pandemic”. This is a loan under the new generation ODA program signed on the basis of the commitment of the Prime Ministers of Vietnam and Japan with the most preferential interest rate ever under the quick disbursement mechanism, directly remitted to the state budget.

He emphasized that the Japanese Government is the largest bilateral partner of the Government of Vietnam for cooperation in loans and aid, the Minister said that through JICA, the Japanese Government has sponsored Vietnam has loans, many of which are of great value, to support Vietnam to develop infrastructure, social security, fight against climate change, and contribute to Vietnam’s economic – social development.

At the same time, he asserted that Vietnam would accelerate the progress of projects to effectively use JICA's loans, especially projects related to transport infrastructure and irrigation systems.

At the meeting, the Minister also said that the contents discussed at the meeting would be implemented soon, quickly, and effectively.

Speaking at the meeting, raising proposals related to the new generation ODA loans, Mr. Yamada Junichi said, JICA is currently implementing four standby credits.

Specifically: emergency loans for a public health crisis intended to provide borrowers with contingency funding to respond to emergency public health situations, such as a COVID-19 pandemic; financial intermediary loans (2-step loans) made through banks such as policy banks, mainly to provide capital to small and medium enterprises to encourage their development; provisional emergency loans for emergency recovery, used to recover and overcome consequences of natural disasters; equity financing loan which will be made under the model of capital support for private enterprises through commercial banks.

According to Yamada Junichi, proposals for new-generation ODA loans have now been implemented in some countries. For Vietnam, JICA is very eager to continue designing loans because, in fact, JICA loans to Vietnam in the past five years are still modest.

JICA Vice President also affirmed that Japan will continue to make efforts to deploy loans to Vietnam to promote cooperation between the two countries, contributing to the socio-economic development of Vietnam as well as of the region.

Promoting cooperation between the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam and IFAD

Sharing at the meeting, for the proposals from JICA, Minister Ho Duc Phoc said that the Ministry of Finance appreciated JICA's new lending mechanisms. The Minister requested the JICA’s technical unit and the representative of the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam as the Department of Debt Management and External Finance, to have specific discussions to clarify the process, procedures and conditions of each loan method and conformity with the provisions of Vietnamese law.