Deputy Prime Minister Lê Minh Khái has asked ministries to pay careful consideration to the allocation of public investment in 2021-25 to ensure capital efficiency.

 

The National Assembly set the total public investment for 2021-25 at VNĐ2.87 quadrillion, VNĐ1.5 quadrillion of which would come from the central budget and the rest from the local budgets under the medium-term public investment plan.

 

The Ministry of Planning and Investment said that the capital allocation plan for projects to be implemented in the period was already submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee.

 

Still, there is about VNĐ40,000 trillion of foreign capital that has not been allocated as agencies were working with donors to set up projects once the investment policies were approved.

 

For projects which had not completed investment procedures, Khái called for progress to be hastened to be eligible for being allocated capital.

 

Khái asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to push relevant ministries and agencies to urgently approve investment policies of projects in accordance with the established regulations.

 

Regarding the investment sourced from local budgets, Khái said favourable conditions should be created to speed up the allocation of capital and ensure capital efficiency.

 

He said that careful consideration must be given to the implementation of the medium-term public investment plan to raise an appropriate and effective capital allocation roadmap.

 

Slow disbursement

 

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the disbursement of public investment was slow in the first seven months of this year.

 

The ministry’s statistics showed that as of the end of July, more than VNĐ186.8 trillion was disbursed, making up for 34.47 per cent of the Government’s plan.

 

Only one central agency and 11 localities reported a disbursement rate of 50 per cent while 41 out of 51 ministries and central agencies and 18 out of 63 provinces and cities had disbursement rates lower than the country’s average of 34.47 per cent.

 

The Government planned to disburse more than VNĐ542 trillion worth of public investment this year. As of June 28, nearly VNĐ466 trillion has been allocated.

 

The ministry pointed out a number of problems which caused slow disbursement of public investment.

 

The first was related to institutions and policies in land, natural resources, environment, construction and bidding.

 

The second was State capital investment planning and the lack of accountability among leaders.

 

The third was difficulties caused by rising material and oil prices at the start of this year and the shortage of sand and soil for site clearance.

 

The ministry stressed that speeding up the disbursement of public investment played an important role in accelerating economic growth, adding that the focus would be placed on improving the institutions and policies, enhancing discipline in implementing public-invested projects and hastening administrative reforms in public investment management.

 

To disburse a huge sum of public investment in 2022 which was 2.5 times higher than 2016 and about VNĐ110 trillion higher than 2021, the Government was going to issue a resolution to enhance the accountability of ministers, heads of ministerial–level agencies, Government agencies and chairpersons of the provincial and municipal people’s committees. — VNS