Steer, who will chair the gathering under the World Bank Consultative Group from December 7-8, declined to say how much would be committed. Any dropoff would reflect domestic financial constraints for some donors along with problems others have had implementing pledges, Steer said without elaborating. Vietnam has accelerated the reform process but it is still too slow. The message at the meeting will be one of deep concern. Vietnam's donors will gather to discuss a country once regarded as a prime investment frontier but now considered by many foreign firms as one of the toughest places in the region to do business.
Aid forms a key component of Hanoi's development strategy and is a valuable source of hard currency.
Quick-disbursement assistance funds also help shore up the impoverished country's annual budget requirements. Hanoi insists it will reform the economy at its own pace, although some economists believe it will take a major crisis before Vietnam implements sweeping measures to strengthen the fragile banking sector, cut red tape and tackle corruption. Vietnam aims for economic growth of six percent this year and in 1999, from official growth of 8.8 percent last year. Many economists have called the targets optimistic. Indeed, Steer said what he feared was that Vietnam would get used to a slower growth trajectory and regard this as sufficient because other regional economies were shrinking.