Minister of Finance: "Do not borrow ODA at any cost"

(Dan Tri) - The Minister of Finance emphasized that ODA projects must ensure financial efficiency because only then will there be no worries about inflation or the burden of national debt.

This is one of the important contents of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management, discussed by the National Assembly during the working session in the hall on the morning of November 18.

“Cannot lend without supervision”

Delegate To Ai Vang (Can Tho City) proposed assigning the Government to regulate the responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance and relevant agencies in fully and promptly publicizing information on borrowed debt obligations, debt usage and repayment status so that supervisory agencies can conveniently monitor and supervise the use of borrowed capital.

National Assembly Delegate To Ai Vang (Photo: Hong Phong).

This draft law adds a provision that "allows policy banks or commercial banks to re-lend to public service units in a way that the re-lending agency does not bear credit risks." Although he believes that this is a necessary issue, delegate Pham Van Hoa suggested that it be considered because "if re-lending is done without bearing risks," the responsibility of credit institutions has not been determined.

“The risk of lending shows the responsibility of the bank to check, monitor and manage the lending source. It is impossible to lend without supervision,” said Mr. Hoa.

Explaining, Finance Minister Nguyen Van Thang emphasized that the goal of amending the law is to implement decentralization, reduce administrative procedures, and handle difficulties in accessing and using foreign loans.

In particular, Mr. Thang noted that ODA projects must ensure financial efficiency because only then will there be no worries about inflation or the burden of national debt. “This is a prerequisite when considering borrowing, not that we borrow at all costs,” the Minister of Finance emphasized.

This draft law supplements that, along with policy banks, commercial banks are allowed to re-lend to public service units.

According to Mr. Thang, this regulation aims to abolish the monopoly mechanism of re-lending to public service units of the Development Bank and strengthen the mechanism of healthy competition in re-lending appraisal, ensuring more prestige and professionalism. Thereby, the quality of appraisal and re-lending management is improved, helping to limit credit risks for the budget.

National Assembly Delegate Pham Van Hoa (Photo: Hong Phong).

At the same time, the Law also supplements a mechanism for sharing credit risks between the Government and re-lending agencies when re-lending large projects and projects on the State's priority investment list.

"The Ministry of Finance plans to report to the Government that the Decree stipulates that commercial banks bear 10% of the risk, while the Government still bears the majority of 90%, instead of commercial banks not bearing the risk as at present," the Minister of Finance said, saying that this will ensure better loan appraisal quality and management efficiency.

Don't let "have money but can't spend it"

During the discussion session, many National Assembly delegates were also concerned about the current ODA loan term being very long compared to public investment projects.

“This is also an issue that I, the Ministry of Finance and the Government are very concerned about. The Prime Minister and the Government have also directed many times to review the institutions related to the process and procedures for negotiating and disbursing ODA capital,” Mr. Thang said.

Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang (Photo: Hong Phong).

He explained that the time to borrow ODA capital is very long because in the past our regulations were very cumbersome, with many steps and many ministries, while the donor side also had many regulations that were not suitable for Vietnam.

The Commander of the Finance sector cited that in the past, an ODA loan source had to be submitted through the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the State Bank and other ministries and sectors before going down to the locality.

“When we worked with big donors like the World Bank and ADB, they were very upset. They also said they lent money all over the world but had never seen a place with a loan as long as Vietnam,” Mr. Thang shared.

He said that when he worked directly with the World Bank leaders in Vietnam and asked them to provide the average time to implement an ODA loan, the answer he received was that a loan, if calculated on average for all countries in the world, would take about 12-15 months.

National Assembly delegates in the discussion session on the morning of November 18 (Photo: Hong Phong).

Then, the Ministry of Finance edited and submitted to competent authorities to adjust all institutional issues to ensure that a Vietnamese ODA loan is only from 12 to 15 months.

Regarding this issue, in addition to institutional issues, Mr. Thang emphasized the importance of local implementation organization, avoiding the situation of "having money but not being able to disburse", forcing donors to recover capital. According to the Minister, this story is very regrettable in the context of limited State budget.

With this amendment to the law, the Minister expects the progress of arranging ODA loans to be improved.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/thoi-su/bo-truong-tai-chinh-khong-vay-oda-bang-moi-gia-20251118103412750.htm