UNITED STATES ASSISTANCE TO VIETNAM

U.S. assistance to Vietnam is designed to support Vietnam’s economic development,  promote civil society & the rule of law, and mitigate problems challenging sustainable development such as HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation and avian influenza.   

Assistance to Vietnam has grown and evolved during the last decade reflecting the deepening U.S.-Vietnam relationship. In the early 1990s, modest funded activities were limited to disaster relief and assistance to war victims and orphans via international NGOs.  Since 1995, however, USAID’s program has expanded into legal reform, governance, economic growth, HIV/AIDS, environmental protection and disaster prevention.   For FY 2005 total U.S. assistance from all agencies was approximately $65 million with the largest portion provided by USAID.  USAID officially opened a branch office in Hanoi in September 2000 as part of its Regional Mission/Asia.   

Highlights of the overall assistance program include:

• USAID is supporting Vietnam’s transition to an open market economy by strengthening trade liberalization, particularly the legal reforms needed to implement the commitments in the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement and WTO accession.  USAID provides a team of economists and legal specialists who work with senior policy makers in the executive branch, the National Assembly and the party.  Work is arrayed around the ambitious legal and administrative reform agenda implicit in BTA accession and WTO membership.  This includes legislation on the civil procedure code, investment laws providing for equal treatment of state-owned and private companies, a securities law to help develop Vietnam’s capital market, IPR protection, the appeal process and many other areas.  This work involves substantial support to the Vietnamese judicial system up to the Supreme Peoples Court. In addition, support goes to regulatory agencies such as the State Securities Commission and the Competition Authority to help develop the management capacity and systems to run a more complex economy.  Finally, USAID supports policy analysis and technical assistance to the Vietnamese private sector and research groups to help that sector grow into a driver of the Vietnamese economy.  With the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, USAID has launched a Provincial Competitiveness Index which measures the business environment in the provinces.
• Disability assistance focuses on select vulnerable groups, including victims of war injuries, disabilities and disasters. This assistance initially focused on providing prosthetic devices and rehabilitation for amputees. As a key donor addressing disability assistance, we are also working with the government to address  broader national policies.  The intent is to give the five million physically challenged Vietnamese a  greater voice in public policies that effect their interests, more inclusive educational opportunities, greater and more meaningful employment opportunities and barrier-free access throughout society.
• Through of combination of Fulbright grants and the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), the United States sponsors over a hundred students yearly for graduate study in the United States, primarily in science and technology.  The Fulbright program is the largest in Asia. VEF was established with the unpaid proceeds of loans extended to the old government. 
• Approximately $5 million of the $25 million supplemental appropriated to combat avian influenza is dedicated to Vietnam.  That support is just beginning and consists of financial support to the joint effort of WHO/FAO to support prevention and preparedness measures  as well as public education and capacity strengthening in the Ministry of Health.  Additonal assistance in this area is likely in the future.  
  
• Vietnam is one of fifteen countries in President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.  An interagency team led by the Ambassador provided $27.6 million this year and will provide $34 million in FY 2006 to expand comprehensive and integrated prevention, care and treatment programs.  Vietnam’s HIV/AIDS problem is largely a drug-centered epidemic now moving into the general population.   Aggressively dealing with the problem now will prevent a larger epidemic later.  Other assistance programs include anti-trafficking, the environment and a successful program of teaching framers cocoa production now expanding in the Central Highlands,   Finally, USAID has also had a long history in Vietnam in providing disaster relief assistance and currently has programs in coastal storm warning and drought relief in the central coastal provinces of Vietnam.