The Government of Australia has provided direct assistance for the development of transport infrastructure in Vietnam since 1996. Since then, Vietnam has made considerable economic and social progress, but the Ministry of Transport (MOT) of the Government of Vietnam still faces a number of constraints in developing transport projects for implementation. The MOT must conduct project preparatory studies to meet the vast and often differing standards required by domestic and external financier needs. It is also hampered by an inflexible project development process and requirements, and funding limitations that prevent more comprehensive consideration of issues and development of better projects. In the case of projects financed by multilateral development banks, the process of securing approvals and loans too often delays project implementation.

The Aus4Transport Program is implementing practical means to address each of these issues, with key elements including the following.

• Focus on project development where practical change is achievable.
• Take a flexible approach to identifying activities, given the potential for government priorities to change over time and new opportunities to emerge.
• Focus on improved technical practice and provide selective support for policy change to support this work.
• Work with Multilateral Development Banks, which have broadly similar expectations to the Government of Australia with regard to project development and with the private sector in order to enhance its role in improving transport infrastructure.
• Take a longer term perspective to the provision of support to MOT given that change can be challenging in Vietnam, where reform to entrenched arrangements and practices are needed.

The Aus4Transport Program seeks to increase investment in Vietnam’s transport infrastructure, leading to an enhanced transport network that supports economic growth and poverty reduction.

Expected outcomes from this activity include:

• The Ministry of Transport giving enhanced consideration of engineering, financial, economic, safety, gender, social, and environmental matters in all pre-feasibility studies, feasibility studies, and detailed engineering design and documentation. These changes will result in the MOT more rapidly implementing better prepared proposals and concepts, drawing on innovative and comprehensive approaches.
• The Ministry of Transport identifying bottlenecks in project development, assessing remedial measures, recommending improved practices, and ultimately resulting in the MOT adopting improved policies and procedures that lead to more efficient and effective project development.

The ultimate aim of this program is to achieve faster project development and improved quality of transport infrastructure, making use of funding from all financial sources.