Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha met Embassy of Italy in Vietnam

Scene of the meeting

In the working session, Deputy Minister Tran Xuan Ha shared with the working group some content relating to the work of public debts management in Vietnam. Accordingly, the National Assembly passed the Law on Public Debt Management (amended), valid from 1/7/2018. The Law regulated that assigning the Ministry of Finance is the focal point to assist the Government in unifying state management of public debt.

Accordingly, it clearly defined the tasks and competences of the Ministry of Finance that is to preside over the negotiation and signing of the commercial loan agreement, the framework agreement and the specific agreement on ODA loans and preferential loans from foreign countries on behalf of the State and Government.

"This is an important content because the focal point of state management of public debt has been united, overcomes the previous limitation which is about the partners have to work with Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning and Investment." The Ministry of Finance has also assigned the Debt Management and External Finance Department as the focal point for solving the debt financing work, directly implementing the assigned tasks. The Deputy Minister expressed his hope that the Italian Ambassador to Viet Nam would recognize this change in order to coordinate the implementation of the relevant contents.

He also said that the progress of some programs and projects of loan agreements between the two parties is slow due to subjective and objective reasons. In that, there is a debt conversion agreement signed from 2015. According to the provisions of the debt conversion agreement and technical agreement, the selection of the project would be approved by the management committee consists of representatives of the Embassy of Italy and the Ministry of Planning and Investment based on the proposal of ministries, branches and localities. The Deputy Minister said that, "These regulations were quite complex, not really in line with ODA management regulations and preferential loans of Vietnam."

The Deputy Minister requested the Italian Embassy to give an official opinion on the draft revised version submitted by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), which would be served as the basis for the Vietnamese side to carry out the approval procedures in the country.

On the financial cooperation program in the period 2021 and 2025 between Vietnam and Italy, Deputy Minister Tran Xuan Ha wished to continue receiving the support of Italy through projects, including the project "Support for job creation and social inclusion in vocational schools in Vietnam" and the project "Enhancing competitive production capacity of small and medium enterprises in HCM City, Dong Nai and Binh Duong" in order to complete projects in the period 2018-2020.

Sharing concern with Deputy Minister Tran Xuan Ha on the public debt management task, Ambassador Cecilia Piccioni said that the coordinating focal point for state management of public debt would help solve the problems of policy mechanism.

Mrs. Cecilia Piccioni also pledged to support the financial cooperation program in the period 2021-2025 between Vietnam and Italy.