Gov’t determined to speed up public investment disbursement

A component project of the North-South Expressway under construction. Speeding up the disbursement of public investment was expected to drive economic growth after the pandemic. — VNA/VNS Photo Việt Hùng

The Vietnamese Government has set up six working groups to speed up the disbursement of public investment to create impetus for post-pandemic economic growth.

This was a bold effort raised after the disappointing results of public investment disbursement in the first months of this year, especially of foreign-sourced capital.

The working groups would be in charge of identifying difficulties and problems in the implementation of public-invested projects, especially projects which use official development assistance (ODA) and concressional loans from foreign donors at ministries, central-level agencies and localities and recommending solutions to accelerate the disbursement of public investment and increase capital use efficiency.

The latest updates from the Ministry of Finance showed that the disbursement of public investment was estimated at 18.48 per cent in January - April, slightly lower than the rate of 18.65 per cent of the same period last year.

Notably, the disbursement of foreign-sourced capital was at only 3.25 per cent while domestic-sourced at 19.57 per cent.

Seven ministries and eight localities had a disbursement rate of more than 25 per cent, including the Việt Nam Bank for Social Policies (91.12 per cent), Vietnam Development Bank (59.64 per cent), the Central Committee of Vietnam Fatherland Front (48.86 per cent), the State Bank of Vietnam (35.76 per cent), Bình Thuận Province (33.9 per cent) and Phú Thọ Province (33.4 per cent).

Forty-three out of 51 minitries and central-level agencies and 28 out of 63 provinces and cities had disbursement rates below 17 per cent.

The ministry pointed out that the slow disbursement of public investment was due to the lack of determination and drastic measures in implementing public-invested projects, some faced problems in land clearance and selecting contractors while the skyrocketing prices of construction materials also caused delays in implementation.

The ministry’s statistics also revealed that twelve ministries and central-level agencies and 21 provinces and cities had not completed the capital allocation plan.

To speed up public investment disbursement, the Ministry of Finance asked for the cooperation of the Ministry of Planning and Investment to transfer the capital which had not been allocated as of the end of March to ministries, agencies and localities with ongoing projects which had demand for capital.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Trần Quốc Phương said that the disbursement of public investment was often strengthened in the two last quarters of the year.

Simplifying administrative procedures would also help speed up public investment disbursement.

Specifically, the State Treasury shortened the capital settlement time from four days to one for the advance and payment of 80 per cent of the completed volume. Other payments would be made within three working days.

According to the ministry, the focus would be placed on enhancing the accountability of the heads in implementing public-invested projects. In addtion, the problems related to land clearance and resources must also be tackled.

Speeding up the disbursement of public investment was expected to create spillover effects to accelerate the post-pandemic economic growth.

The disbursement rates reached 91 per cent in 2020 and 93 per cent in 2021. — VNS