Public investment: It is necessary to ensure the principle of prioritising important projects

	‘Aggressively’ promoting public investment disbursement
	More aggressive in directing public investment disbursement
	Discussions on the Public Investment Law (revised)

In the socio-economic development plan for the period 2021-2025, it is necessary to select priority and key projects.

Regarding the implementation of public investment plans in the first 7 months of the year and estimated implementation in 2019 of 14 provinces in the North Central and Central Coast, the MPI said the allocated 2019 plan was 55,768 billion VND, equal to 95.8% of the capital approved by the National Assembly.

According to a report by the Ministry of Finance, by July 30, 2019, the whole region disbursed 22.853 billion VND, reaching 43.47%, higher than the national average of 36.16%. There are 3 localities disbursing over 60% of the assigned plan: Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Phu Yen.

However, the MPI also noted that ODA disbursement is low, only 8.38% (lower than the national average rate of 11.78%). As of July 30, 2019, according to a report of the Ministry of Finance, 4 of 14 provinces have an ODA disbursement rate of 0%, 6 localities disbursed less than 20% of the plan. Government bonds also saw a low disbursement at only 1.12%, and most provinces have not disbursed.

For the Central Highlands, the total investment from the budget in the 2019 plan which was approved by the National Assembly was 13,187 billion VND.

According to the report of the Ministry of Finance, the total disbursed capital of the Region is 4,811 billion VND, reaching 40.8%, higher than the national average of 36.16%. However, some capital sources reached low disbursement rate, such as the ODA was only 3.31% of the plan, National Target Programs (NTP) was 23.4% of the plan.

Regarding the low disbursement, according to the MPI, firstly, there is also a subjective mindset of some localities as they are being proactive in extending public investment disbursement within 2 years. Secondly, many localities have not yet decentralized drastically to implement the NTP at the commune level.

Thirdly, many projects invested in ODA capital plan 2019 have problems related to signing and extending agreements on re-borrowing ODA capital, import tax, expenditure control at the State Treasury and procedures for recording revenues and expenditures with the Ministry of Finance, the implementation of a centralized procurement plan.

According to the MPI, disbursement of government bonds is slow because some localities are focusing on disbursing the capital that was allowed to extend procedures from 2018.

In addition, the capacity of some investors is limited and they do not fully understand the investment procedures in capital construction investment, leading to delays in the preparation of bidding documents.

Regarding this issue, according to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Duc Trung, the balance of resources in the development plans for the period 2016-2020 is still difficult, because this is the first phase of a medium-term public investment plan, so we have not fully figured out the balancing capability.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Trung noted that the budget is facing many difficulties, so in developing the socio-economic development plan for the period 2021-2025, it is necessary to select the priority and key projects, which can motivate the growth of the region.

In addition, the Deputy Minister emphasized that localities should study carefully the principles and criteria of using the state budget, prioritizing important projects. In fact, there are still many imbalances in budget use.

Public investment disbursement low in four months Disbursement of public investment capital was estimated at VND68.548 trillion (US$2.94 billion) over the first four months ...

According to the Deputy Minister, the major basis for the building of the public investment plan for 2021-2025 is the revised Law on Public Investment with many new points, which removes and simplify the implementation of public investment plan. This will be the basis for a more feasible medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period.