Vice Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan held a meeting with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the World Bank’s experts from the Vietnam Public Financial Management Analytical and Advisory Assistance Program (AAA) in the afternoon of April 11, 2019. Among the attendees were leaders of technical departments within the Ministry of Finance.
Vice Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan chaired the meeting
The meeting was organized as part of an independent mid-term review to evaluate the progress towards program objectives and propose recommendations to ensure they will be achieved.
During the meeeting, Dr. Clay Wescott, who has served as the independent evaluator in this mid-term review, presented his initial findings. In his observations, Government stakeholders highly value the program including high technical quality of Bank advice, tailored to Vietnamese context, and promoting an integrated approach to public finance linking the executive and legislature. In addition, the program is well aligned with the Vietnamese modus operandi of step-by-step experimentation, piloting, prioritizing and scaling up what works.
Dr. Clay Wescott held the active support of donors, namely Global Affairs Canada and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), in high regard.
Dr. Clay Wescott presented his findings
Dr. Clay Wescott recommended a workshop be organized to review the results framework and make relevant adjustments in order to achieve expected objectives by program completion.
Mr. Marcel Reymond – head of SECO Vietnam emphasized that the mid-term review is instrumental. This is an opportunity for relevant stakeholders to step back and reflect on what we do, how we do and how we can do better and faster, including making structural changes.
Mr. Reymond stated that the disbursement rate is an important indicator yet the most crucial is impact. The Swiss Government put the emphasis on impact. He hoped the program can keep the momentum and move forward.
Vice Minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan during the meeting
Vice Minister Tuan highly appreciated the efforts made by the expert team and agreed with the initial findings. In his view, public financial management should be in line with international good practices. He urged for a faster execution of the prorgam and listed several challenges it has faced, including lack of capacity and the divergence between capital and recurrent expenditure, among others.
The Vice Minister hoped the experts will continue their support and active collaboration with the Ministry of Finance to speed up the execution of the program.
The Vietnam Public Financial Management (PFM) Analytical and Advisory Assistance (AAA) Program 2016-2020 is co-financed by SECO and the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and entrusted through the WB with the aim to support Vietnam in its PFM reform at both national and subnational levels. The objectives of the Program are to: (i) support strengthening the capacity of executive bodies to make, implement, and monitor policies to improve budget planning and execution in a transparent, accountable, and sustainable manner; and (ii) provide empirical analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of major public finance reforms at both the central and local levels of government. |
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