"Be Eager" to promote disbursement of public investment capital

	Creating a breakthrough in disbursement of public investment capital
	Accelerate the allocation and disbursement of public investment capital

A number of key traffic projects, including the North-South expressway to the East have been put into operation. In the photo: Mai Son Expressway - National Highway 45 Photo: Anh Vinh

Disbursement of public investment needs to be most effective

The 5th session of the 15th National Assembly approved the Resolution on capital allocation for the program of socio-economic recovery and development; allocate and adjust the medium-term public investment plan of the central budget in the 2021-2025 period and allocate the central budget investment plan in 2023 of the national target programs. The percentage of delegates participating in the vote passed at a very high level.

According to experts, the need for disbursement of public investment in this period is very large, and the recovery requirements of the economy are high in the context of a difficult market, so the National Assembly deputies are "eager" to find the most effective way to disburse public investment, it is necessary to have a reasonable allocation shift from unusable to immediate use.

Accordingly, on the allocation and adjustment of the medium-term public investment plan of the central budget in the 2021-2025 period, the National Assembly's Resolution decided to allocate 25,995 billion VND of the remaining capital of the central public investment plan. central budget capital limit for the 2021-2025 period for ministries, central and local agencies. For more than VND 62,364 billion of the medium-term public investment plan, capital from the central budget for the period 2021-2025 has been allocated to ministries, central agencies, and localities according to Resolution No. 29/2021/QH15, National Assembly assigned the Prime Minister to direct the review and assignment of capital plans for tasks and projects with adequate investment procedures, which have been reported to the National Assembly at the 5th session of the 15th National Assembly.

The National Assembly's resolution also adjusted down more than VND 24,594 billion of the medium-term public investment plan, capital from the central budget for the period 2021-2025, allocated to the Ministry of Transport to increase the corresponding public investment plan with medium-term capital from the central budget in the 2021-2025 period for a number of localities according to regulations. The National Assembly decided to reduce nearly VND 2,949 billion in tasks and projects that have been assigned the medium-term public investment plan of the central budget for the period 2021-2025 to increase correspondingly for tasks and projects, not on the list of projects. The Government has reported to the National Assembly at the First Session of the 15th National Assembly and the projects that have been assigned the Medium-term Public Investment Plan for the period 2021-2025 but are different from the sectors and fields with the reduced adjusted projects.

For the remaining more than VND 53,049 billion of the medium-term public investment plan, capital from the central budget for the period 2021-2025, which has not yet been allocated in detail for tasks and projects, the National Assembly decided to include the provision of medium-term public investment plan funded by the central budget for the period 2021-2025.

According to the assessment report of the National Assembly Standing Committee, in response to comments about the delay in the allocation and disbursement of public investment, the Resolution requested the Government and ministries, branches, and localities to seriously learn from experience in public investment. the implementation of tasks, requesting the National Assembly to assign and direct the clarification of responsibilities, and strictly handling the organizations and individuals involved in the delay in completing investment procedures, leading to the delay in reporting, so it is impossible to timely allocation of capital. Along with that, the Resolution also assigned the Government to direct ministries, central agencies, and localities to synchronously and drastically implement solutions to speed up the disbursement of capital sources, ensure the management and use of capital resources in accordance with the law, for the right purposes and effectively.

There have been many positive signals

According to a report from the Ministry of Finance, the estimated disbursement of public investment capital by the end of May 2023 is over VND 157,000 billion, just reaching 20.8% of the plan. Many positive signals in public investment have continuously come in recent times when some sections of the Northern expressway were started; a number of key traffic projects, the North-South expressway section to the East have been inaugurated and put into operation, etc.

For example, on June 25, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the investment project to build ring road 4 in the Hanoi Capital Region and the construction project of the Cao Lanh - An Huu (stage 1). These are two projects with a total investment of more than VND 91,000 billion in the form of public investment or a combination of public-private partnerships (PPP). Previously, the Prime Minister attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang expressway project, period 1. After that, the Prime Minister continued to attend a series of groundbreaking ceremonies for many projects for major traffic.

Among these projects, there have been projects completed ahead of schedule such as the Nha Trang - Cam Lam expressway project on the East North-South Expressway (completed 3 months early); There are projects that start on schedule thanks to the shortened preparation, such as Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang expressway project, the preparation takes only about 1 year compared to the average of 2 years as reported. Normally, the site clearance for the Ring Road 4 project has been completed by about 81.5%, etc.

According to experts, this is achieved not only thanks to drastic directing and operating efforts but also thanks to specific mechanisms, especially promoting decentralization and mobilizing resources for projects. From the beginning of 2022 until now, the Government and the Prime Minister have also drastically directed when issuing 16 resolutions, 6 public notices, 2 directives, and organized 4 online conferences, and maintain 5 continuous working groups of the Government and ministers to urge disbursement. Government members also directly work with localities to promptly remove obstacles and difficulties.

On this issue, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Viet, Deputy Director of the Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR), said that efforts to disburse public investment capital are an important move in domestic demand stimulus, an important driver of Vietnam's economic growth in the near future. Meanwhile, in recent Vietnam macroeconomic updates, the World Bank's (WB) experts continuously made recommendations on accelerating the disbursement of public investment, including the national target program because it can support aggregate demand and economic growth in the short term.

However, in 2023, there are many difficulties in disbursing public investment due to the high scale of public investment capital, along with factors arising in price, input materials; the state of some parts of cadres and civil servants extruding, dodging, making the procedures protracted; difficulties in site clearance, etc. Therefore, this work needs to be more drastic, decentralization is further promoted, and difficulties are promptly removed, etc.