The Ministry of Planning and Investment would like to acknowledge Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc's proposal (Faculty of Law, Hanoi National University of Education) for further researching and improving the procedures for receiving grant aid.

Through the System of receiving and responding to people's recommendation, Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc working at the Faculty of Law, Hanoi National University of Education requested that the Government allows Hanoi National University of Education to take initiative in receiving foreign non-governmental aid.

According to Mr. Duc, it is difficult to seek for foreign non-governmental aid to serve the purpose of creating learning materials and improving the teaching quality. Meanwhile, the administrative procedures related to receiving foreign non-governmental aid are still complicated and dependent on many ministries, departments and agencies.

Currently, in order to receive foreign non-governmental aid, the Faculty of Law where Mr. Duc works not only has to report and ask for permission from Hanoi National University but also to report and get permission from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Finance and other relevant agencies. Such redundant procedures fail to promote the autonomy of Hanoi National University and limit the proactive search for sources of aid.

In response to this problem, the Ministry of Planning and Investment gives following opinion:

Competence to approve FNG aid amounts

Regarding the case of Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc in which the donors are stated in Article 1 of Regulation on management and use of foreign non-governmental aid provided for non-profit purposes (Promulgated together with the Government's Decree No. 93/2009/ND-CP dated October 22nd 2009), pursuant to article 15 of Regulation on management and use of foreign non-governmental aid which is promulgated together with the Government's Decree No. 93/2009/ND-CP, Hanoi National University of Education have the right to consider and decide the aid amounts if such amounts are not related to security, defense or religion as Hanoi National University of Education is a line agency.

Regarding the case of Mr. Duc in which the donors are stated in Article 1 of decree 16/2016/ND-CP of the Government dated March 16th 2016 on management and use of official development assistance and concessional loans granted by foreign sponsors, pursuant to Article 17 and 22, the governing body of the project or non-project aid shall seek comments about  project proposals and the report on proposal of investment guidelines from relevant agencies depending on the scale, and contents of the program/project.

Pursuant to Article 5 of Law No. 83/2015/QH13 dated June 25, 2015, on state budget, State budget revenues include grant aid provided by governments of other countries, overseas organizations and individuals for Vietnam’s government and local governments of Vietnam.

The receipt, management and use of this capital sources are subject to relevant legal documents.

Procedures of appraising the aid amounts

As stipulated at decree 113/2014/ND-CP dated November 26th 2014 on the management of international legal cooperation, such aid related to legal training and retraining requires written replies of the Ministry of Justice (for aid lists falling under the approving competence of the Government’s Prime Minister) and managing agencies ((for aid lists falling under their respective approving competence).

For non-refundable ODA valued at under USD 2 million, not within the scope of security and defense under the investment-deciding competence of the managing agencies, as stipulated at Decree 16/2016/ND CP, the governing body shall receive written comments of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance on the project proposal of the ability to balance capital and domestic financial mechanism.

Based on the opinions of the agencies, the governing body assigns the relevant units to prepare the report on proposal of investment guidelines to send to the relevant agencies for comments. Based on the opinions of the relevant agencies, the governing body shall consider and approve the report on proposal of investment guidelines, serving as the basis for project investment / non-project aid approval.

For foreign non-governmental aids that are not related to security and religion, directly formulate legislative documents from the Government’s Prime Minister upwards, pursuant to the provisions of Regulation promulgated together with Decree 93/2009 / ND-CP, governing bodies collect written comments from the relevant agencies. Based on the official opinions of the agencies, the unit assigned by the managing agency to appraise will summarize and submit to the competent authorities for approval.

Currently, the Ministry of Planning and Investment is presiding over the amendment and supplementation of regulations related to non-refundable aid provided in the two decrees mentioned above, and submitted to the Government for consideration and decision.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment would like to acknowledge Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc's proposal to research and improve the procedures and procedures for receiving non-refundable aid.