Localities accelerate disbursement of public investment capital

	Seven ministries and eight provinces report investment disbursement rate of over 25%
	Gov’t determined to speed up public investment disbursement
	Over VND40 trillion of public capital has not been allocated

Ministries and local agencies have developed many positive solutions to speed up disbursement of public investment capital. Photo: Thuy Linh

The disbursement of capital is still facing difficulties

In the first months of 2022, the State Treasury has actively worked with ministries and local agencies to develop many positive solutions to speed up the disbursement of public investment capital.

According to the report of the State Treasury, as of April 15, 2022, the investment capital disbursed through the State Treasury under the 2022 plan is VND67,613.7 billion, or 13.8% of the plan assigned by the State Treasury.

In Hung Yen, as of April 30, 2022, Hung Yen has been allocated nearly VND9,000 billion, of which VND4,142 billion is assigned by the Prime Minister and VND4,853.5 billion is assigned by provinces, districts and communes.

So far, the province has disbursed nearly VND1,330 billion or 32% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

In the first months of the year, the disbursement of investment capital of Hung Yen province faced difficulties due to the slow preparation, appraisal and approval of projects starting construction in 2022 because these projects have not completed investment procedures according to regulations.

At the same time, the high price of construction materials has affected the construction progress of the projects; so many projects have not had the completed volume for capital disbursement.

In Quang Tri province, according to a report from Quang Tri State Treasury, by the end of April, the whole province disbursed VND310.1 billion or 9% of the capital plan assigned in 2022 (above VND3,458.9 billion).

Notably, ODA has not yet been disbursed. Like many other localities across the country, the price of construction materials such as iron and steel, sand, stone, and cement has soared, causing the work to slow down.

As for ODA projects, because the implementation must comply with the donor's process, and go through many steps which must be approved by the donor; a number of projects are in the process of reviewing equipment lists from component projects to prepare for international bidding procedures, resulting in the failure in capital disbursement.

Close coordination among agencies

In fact, the delay in disbursement of public investment capital not only leads to capital reduction and recovery, but also seriously affects the economic recovery and development of provinces and cities.

In order to accelerate the disbursement of public investment - a key content of the socio-economic recovery and development program in 2022 - 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has decided to establish six working groups to inspect, urge, remove difficulties and obstacles, accelerate disbursement of public investment capital in 2022 at ministries, central and local agencies which, as of April 30, 2022, have not been fully allocated public investment capital plan in 2022; and have disbursement rate as of April 30, 2022 below the national average (18.48%).

It is expected that the working groups will soon promote effectiveness, speeding up the disbursement of public investment capital in the near future instead of accumulating at the end of the year.

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Sy Cuong, Deputy Head of the Financial Policy Analysis Department, Academy of Finance, the Prime Minister has been very drastic in urging disbursement, giving specific instructions on disbursement for highway projects from site clearance to the supply of materials.

For the State Treasury, to speed up the disbursement, the State Treasury has requested the State Treasury units to actively work with ministries, agencies and budget-using units to develop many solutions to contribute to promoting the disbursement of investment capital, promptly meeting the spending needs of budget-using units, while ensuring strict management and disbursement progress within assigned estimates

In Hung Yen, with the goal of disbursing all allocated public investment capital at the end of the budget year, the People's Committee of Hung Yen province has asked leaders of departments, agencies and People's Committees of districts, towns and cities to speed up the approval of the land-use plan; strengthen the coordination between departments, agencies, localities and investors in site clearance work to implement key projects of the province. Besides, the province will remove difficulties and boost key projects.

In the face of very slow disbursement of public investment capital in the first months of the year, the People's Committee of Quang Tri province has issued a Directive on accelerating the disbursement of ODA and foreign concessional loans in the province.

Disbursement of public investment capital: Not really drastic

Accordingly, the People's Committee of Quang Tri province has required investors who have not yet disbursed to learn from experience and clarify their responsibilities; focus on speeding up the site clearance and construction progress, and remove difficulties and obstacles related to land and natural resources; carried out acceptance and payment as soon as the volume is available; proactively proposed to transfer capital from slow-disbursed ODA projects to projects which have good progress and lack capital and prioritize capital to agreements finishing in 2022 and 2023.