Vietnam Education Ministry Yet to Use $16M for Textbook: Finance Ministry

Regarding the hot topic of the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET)’s loan of $16 million for composing new textbooks and failure to do that, Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) clarified that such amount has not been withdrawn yet, reported the To Quoc newswire, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. Mr. Nguyen Trong Nghia from the MoF’s Department of Debt Management and External Finance explained that the MoF is the borrower and the MoET is the user. However, the MoET has yet to make any proposal towards the MoF to contact the World Bank (WB) for such loans. Such $16 million is on paper and the MoET has not received any yet, he added. He informed that the MoET and the WB are discussing the use of this amount for other tasks until December 6. Earlier, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, head of the Renovation of General Education Project (RGEP), explained that the $16 million is on plan only and is yet to be disbursed, so the MoET has yet to obtain any. He added that any activities are under supervision by the WB and MoF. (VietStock, ToQuoc, Tien Phong)