The Prime Minister (“PM”) Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved a plan to borrow and service debt this year.

According to the Government news website, the Government will borrow VND342.06 trillion (about USD15 billion), with VND243.3 trillion of it from domestic sources and VND98.76 trillion from official development assistance (ODA) and preferential loans.

Loans for financing the State budget deficit and paying loan principals will amount to VND316.3 trillion and those for on-lending will total VND25.76 trillion.

The Prime Minister also approved the debt repayment plan for 2017 totaling VND260.15 trillion, including VND22.9 trillion for direct Government debt repayment in 2017 and VND17.25 trillion for debt payments for on-lending projects.

The plan also include the cap on loans guaranteed by the Government and that on medium and long-term foreign commercial loans which enterprises and credit institutions borrow and repay on their own in 2017.

Those loans include the Government-guaranteed domestic bond sale limit of VND9.25 trillion for the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, the maximum domestic borrowing limit of VND8 trillion guaranteed by the Government for national key projects, the USD700 million limit on foreign commercial loans for enterprises and credit institutions guaranteed by the Government, and the USD5.5 billion limit on foreign commercial loans and the VND23.86 trillion cap on domestic loans which enterprises and credit institutions can take out.

The Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Finance to review the need and limit of Government guarantees for VND25.145 billion government bond sales by the Vietnam Development Bank (VDB). In addition, the ministry will have to inform the Government of budget estimates for ODA loans, and foreign concessional loans for funding the budget deficit so that the Government can present them to the National Assembly.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is told to distribute investment capital for programs and projects financed by ODA loans and preferential loans not yet allocated from the VND60 trillion (about USD2.64 billion) appropriation approved by the National Assembly. Besides, the ministry will have report to the Government so that the National Assembly can hear a briefing on disbursements of ODA and preferential loans in 2017 for basic construction.

The State Bank is responsible for supervising borrowings of foreign commercial loans by enterprises and credit institutions.

Source: http://english.thesaigontimes.vn