Central Region Small and Medium Towns Development Project

Executing agencies' recruitment of consultants remains time-consuming and was the main reason for start-up delays. This problem is not specific to the project but is common in all ADB-financed projects in Viet Nam. Delays in recruiting consultants result in delay of such project activities as detailed design, resettlement planning, environmental management planning, and preparing bidding documents. The delays in bidding and contract awards caused total project costs to rise and held back delivery of the facilities to the final recipients._x005F_x000D__x005F_x000D_The project substantially achieved the targeted outputs despite the start-up delays caused by the prolonged process of recruiting consultants. This demonstrated that the executing agencies at provincial level have the capacity for project implementation and the decentralized approach to project preparation and implementation is appropriate._x005F_x000D__x005F_x000D_The result of efforts to increase tariffs varies among project provinces. Some provinces showed strong commitments in implementing the reform agenda set by the project (for example, Binh Thuan, Dak Lak, and Khanh Hoa provinces). Meanwhile, other provinces were reluctant to raise the wastewater tariff and solid waste collection fee to the required levels (Ninh Thuan and Phu Yen provinces).