Regional comparisons confirm how far Vietnam has come in terms of infrastructure development. In some sub-sectors, such as electricity and water, access to infrastructure services approaches that of richer countries in the region. In others, like sanitation and telephones, access levels are some distance behind the best regional performers. But at comparable development levels, Vietnam does better than average for sanitation and about average for telephones. Overall, the increased availability of infrastructure has resulted in prices increasingly aligned to those in the region as shown in the table below.

The resources mobilized for infrastructure development come from a variety of sources, including the government budget at both central and local levels, state development credit provided by Development Assistance Fund (in 2004, about 40 percent of this fund’s resources were from official development assistance provided by international credit institutions and foreign governments), the issuance of infrastructure bonds, borrowing from sate owned commercial banks, own-source revenues, and partnerships with the private sector (energy and telecommunication have been the principal recipients of private investment).

Vietnam’s pledges in its bid to join WTO to open its market for foreign services providers will inevitably help improve the country’s infrastructure in many areas. Following are Vietnam’s commitments in the telecommunications and energy sectors: 

Vietnam also accepted the pro-competitive WTO Basic Telecommunications Reference Paper which establishes an independent regulator and obligations to prevent anti-competitive behavior by the dominant supplier. The Reference Paper establishes transparency obligations and interconnection requirements.