HANOI, Dec 2 (AFP) - International donors pledged 3.4 billion dollars Thursday to help Vietnam's poverty reduction and economic growth efforts in 2005 but called on the communist government to speed up structural reforms.
The pledge to Vietnam -- one of the world's largest recipients of aid -- was made at the end of the annual two-day Consultative Group meeting that brought together its multilateral and bilateral donors.
The figure represents a 21 percent rise on the 2.8 billion pledged for 2004 but World Bank country director Klaus Rohland said 170 million dollars of this increase was due to exchange rate changes since last year.
"Part is also because of the additional contributions of donors. This shows the support of the international community for Vietnam's path for next year and its road to a complete transition to a market economy," Rohland said.
The communist nation began its "doi moi" or reform process in 1986, abandoning its rigid command economy in favour of a gradual embrace of some measure of a market-based system.
Japan was the largest overall donor, pledging 902 million dollars, an eight percent rise over its official development assistance commitments for 2004.
France was the European Union's largest donor, pledging 444 million dollars, over three times its 2004 amount. Britain was the second largest EU contributor, pledging 107 million dollars.
Soft loans made up around 70 percent of total pledges with 30 percent coming in grants.
The two-day meeting was centred around the government's preparation of its 2006-2010 socio-economic development plan.
"Embarking upon the second five-year plan, 2006-2010, we can capitalise on the significant achievements accomplished by the 'doi moi' policy," said Vo Hong Phuc, Minister for Planning and Investment.
In a statement, the donors, however, "emphasized the need to accelerate implementation of reforms for Vietnam to reach its full potential and continue to reduce poverty at a rapid pace".
The country's reform blueprint revolves around its Comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy. This entails repeating its feat of halving poverty and doubling gross domestic product between 1990 and 2000 by 2010.
Over 26 percent of the Southeast Asian nation's 82 million people still live below the internationally-defined poverty line. In the mid-1980s over 70 percent of the population lived in poverty.
"The main challenge for the future is to improve the quality of growth, to ensure that the benefits of growth are shared as widely as possible across all social and economic groups," said Jordan Ryan, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme.
Donors also stressed the growing need to overhaul the decrepit financial and banking sector, warning that failure to act could prove costly as the country becomes further integrated into the global economy.
Vietnam hopes to join the World Trade Organization next year.
Addressing the country's growing HIV/AIDS problem, further efforts to stamp out widespread corruption and improving the investment environment were other issues highlighted by donors, the World Bank's Rohland said.
Diplomats also said frank discussions were held with government representatives on human rights. No mention, however, was made of the sensitive subject in the final communique.
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