Removing difficulties in public investment disbursement

	PM asks for solutions towards 95% of public investment disbursement rate
	Public investment disbursement in 7 months lower than same period last year
	Transport sector plans to reach public investment disbursement rate of 98% this year

Disbursement reaches more than 47% of the plan in 10 months

This result is lower than the same period in 2023 when it reached 52.03% of the plan and reached 56.74% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

15 of 44 ministries, central agencies and 41/63 local agencies have an estimated disbursement rate above the national average.

Along with that, the disbursement results of national key projects in the transport sector are higher than the average disbursement rate of the whole country in the first nine months (47.1% compared to the disbursement rate of the whole country in the first 9 months of 45.27%), but the disbursement rate has tended to slow down in recent months.

At the seminar "Promoting disbursement of public investment capital" on the afternoon of October 28, 2024, Mr. Duong Ba Duc, Director of the Investment Department (Ministry of Finance) said that the overall disbursement rate of the whole country is lower than the same period in 2023, especially local budget capital.

The disbursement rate of national key projects and key transport projects is uneven.

Some national key projects, key transport projects, and inter-regional projects managed by localities have low disbursement rates. The disbursement rate of ODA capital and foreign preferential loans is low.

Seminar “Promoting disbursement of public investment capital” jointly held by the Financial Times and the Investment Department. Photo: DM

Many difficulties have not been completely resolved

The Director of the Investment Department said that many difficulties and obstacles affecting the disbursement progress have not been completely resolved.

For example, difficulties in policies such as procedures for converting the purpose of using forests and rice fields, or lack of cost norms for projects without construction components, difficulties in regulations on public investment management, bidding mechanisms, etc.

Along with difficulties in site clearance, land use planning and supply of raw materials; difficulties in completing investment procedures, disbursement processes of ODA projects, etc.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Dung, Deputy Director of the Planning Department (Ministry of Transport) also pointed out many difficulties and obstacles affecting the target of public investment disbursement.

That is the order and procedures for investment and construction through many stages and steps, so it takes a lot of time and the work of compensation, support, resettlement, and relocation of technical infrastructure works, which have many potential risks, affecting the progress of implementation and disbursement of projects.

In addition, the supply of materials at some projects is still stuck, slow to be resolved, especially in licensing, increasing the capacity of mines, affecting the progress of project implementation; the weather is increasingly unusual and unpredictable.

According to Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy Director of the Department of Construction Management (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), regulations on procedures, processes, construction, assignment, and adjustment of medium-term plans take a long time for approval of investment policies, plan assignment, so the implementation is slow.

As the agency managing public investment disbursement, Mr. Duong Ba Duc said that the Ministry of Finance has actively synthesized, reviewed, and evaluated to advise the Prime Minister and the Government on many solutions to direct the 2024 public investment plan.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance directly act as Team Leader to inspect, urge, remove difficulties and obstacles, and promote the disbursement of investment capital in 2024 in localities.

At the same time, the Government and the Prime Minister are resolutely directing the synchronous amendment and replacement of mechanisms and policies related to public investment projects to submit to the National Assembly at the ongoing 8th Session, such as the Law on Public Investment (amended), "1 law amending 4 laws" on investment, "1 law amending 7 laws" in the financial sector...

According to Mr. Duc, the guiding viewpoint throughout the process of amending the Laws is to innovate the thinking of law-making, promptly respond to reality, strengthen decentralization, reform administrative procedures, remove difficulties, inadequacies, and obstacles.

"This is considered a major and synchronous reform to remove difficulties that are bottlenecks for the disbursement of public investment projects", the Director of the Investment Department stated.