“Vietnam’s Tentative Approach to Regional Infrastructure Initiatives”

• Vietnam’s Socio-Economic Development Plan 2021-2030 highlights infrastructure development as one of the three strategic breakthroughs.
• However, financing for infrastructure development remains constrained. State resources fund approximately 90 per cent of the country’s infrastructure projects, and mobilising private capital has proven difficult.
• There are currently many foreign-financed connectivity initiatives in the region, such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Japan’s Expanded Partnership for Quality Infrastructure, and projects supported by America’s International Development Finance Corporation.
• While competition among these initiatives provides Vietnam and regional countries with more funding options, they also come with challenges. Vietnam therefore has approached them with some reservations.
• Moving forward, it is crucial for Vietnam to adopt stringent standards in approving new projects, improve the legal environment to attract private infrastructure investment, develop better national infrastructure master plans, diversify infrastructure investment sources, and refrain from taking sides in pursuing international infrastructure development cooperation.

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Do Mai Lan is Research Fellow at the Center for Regional Studies and Foreign Policy, Institute of Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.

Hoang Oanh is Deputy Director of the Center for Regional Studies and Foreign Policy, Institute of Foreign Policy and Strategic Studies, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam.