HANOI, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has called for more official development assistance (ODA) for its socioeconomic development, said Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday.

    Vietnam wishes that donors will open new ODA channels with large scale for the country to help it in infrastructure construction, high-qualified human resource training, institution promotion, management capacity improvement and poverty reduction, he said at the opening ceremony of the two-day 2007 Consultative Group (CG) Meeting.

    The meeting should put forth proposes and solutions for expanding ODA for Vietnam and accelerating the fund's disbursement in 2008 as well as following years, he said, noting that the Vietnamese government will direct to improve the effectiveness of ODA use.

    ODA has made great contribution to Vietnam's socioeconomic development, especially in the fields of health, education, environmental protection, rural development and poverty reduction, Dung said.

    At the 2006 CG meeting, international donors pledged to offer Vietnam nearly 4.45 billion U.S. dollars in ODA in 2007, up from 3.7 billion dollars last year.