PM calls on provinces and cities to accelerate public investment disbursement

Construction of Cầu Rào 1 Bridge in northern Hải Phòng City. The project has a total public investment capital of over VNĐ2.2 trillion. — VNA/VNS Photo

The workload of public investment disbursement in the remaining months of the year will be difficult as the disbursement rate has so far reached only 47.38 per cent, said Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính.

Chính chaired a meeting on Tuesday with local authorities of 63 provinces and cities and relevant ministries on accelerating public investment disbursement.

He said public investment was an important solution to boosting socio-economic development.

He asked participants to focus their discussion on how to effectively utilise public investment, making a contribution to socio-economic growth in 2021 and laying the foundation for development in 2022.

He urged relevant ministries and localities to ensure the progress of public investment disbursement and strengthen supervision to avoid corruption and violations.

According to Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng, more than VNĐ218 trillion has been disbursed as of September, covering 47.38 per cent of the Government’s target.

Four ministries and 11 localities have an allocation rate of more than 60 per cent.

Forty-six out of 50 ministries and central-level agencies and 52 out of 63 provinces and cities have disbursement rates below 60 per cent.

The disbursement remains slow due to obstacles in land clearance, bidding, changes of policies, and a lack of capacity of investors and contractors.

At the conference, leaders of localities with a high rate of disbursement, such as Bắc Giang, Quảng Ninh and Thanh Hóa shared experience, for example, focusing public investment on key and prioritised projects, assigning disbursement plans at the end of the previous year with detailed deadlines and withdrawing investment if falling behind deadline.

Those localities also upheld the responsibilities of leaders in charge of public investment disbursement, asked contractors to sign commitments on meeting deadlines and ensuring quality and strengthened supervision to lift difficulties.

Local authorities of Hà Nội, HCM City, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, Lâm Đồng, Long An and Điện Biên as well as representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations and Vietnam General Confederation of Labour shared challenges that resulted in slow disbursement including impacts of COVID-19, obstacles from land clearance and legal procedures.

Representatives of ministries of justice, construction, agriculture and rural development said the ministries were making amendments to regulations to lift obstacles and accelerate public investment disbursement.

According to PM Chính, the Government has targeted more than 95 per cent of public investment to be disbursed this year, however, due to subjective and objective reasons, the progress is behind schedule.

A number of ministries and localities have disbursement rates below 40 per cent. Some units have a 0 per cent rate.

2021 would come to an end in three months but the workload would be high in order to disburse the remaining 50 per cent of public investment, he said, urging ministries and localities to focus all resources and take drastic measures to realise the target.

He asked localities which are applying social distancing regulations to take time to complete procedures in order to implement the task right away after social distancing ends.

He asked local authorities to apply technology, cut down on administrative procedures to save time and reduce costs. — VNS