Site clearance still a major bottleneck in public investment disbursement

	PM Phuc orders speeding up of public investment disbursement
	PM urges resolution to bottlenecks in public investment disbursement

In the eight months of 2020, the project of land acquisition, compensation, and resettlement support for Long Thanh International Airport disbursed VND1,376,187 billion.

18 ministries and localities transfer to return the capital plan

According to Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, in the first eight months of 2020, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the world economic recession on our country's economy is quite significant.

In that context, boosting the implementation and disbursement of public investment capital is seen as a positive solution to support economic growth, contributing to socio-economic stability.

Up to now, 52 of 53 ministries, central agencies and all localities haveplans to allocate state budget capital in 2020. The total state budget capital of ministries, central agencies and localities has issued a decision or document of the detailed delivery for projects eligible for capital disbursement is VND455,491 billion, reaching 95.4% of the capital investment plan assigned by the Prime Minister (VND477,573 billion).

The Minister of Planning and Investment said that according to the Ministry of Finance's report, the cumulative disbursement from the beginning of the year to July 31 was VND193,040 billion, reaching 40.98% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister (excluding extended capital from previous years). Estimated disbursement as of August 31 is VND221,768 billion, 47% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister (in the same period of 2019, it was41.39%).

There are five ministries, central agencies and 19 localities with disbursement rates above 60%. However, there are 29 ministries, central agencies and six localities with disbursement rates below 35%, of which 15 ministries, central agencies and one locality have disbursement rates below 15%.

Regarding the disbursement of a number of major projects, national important projects, specifically the North-South Expressway project in the East, according to the report of the Ministry of Transport, the total disbursed capital of 11 projects components isVND5,530billion ofVND8,970 billion in2020, reaching 61.6%.

In the first eight months of 2020, the Long Thanh International Airport's Land Acquisition, Compensation and Support Project disbursed VND1,376,187 billion, accumulated disbursement up to now is VND2,513,655 billion, reaching 13.82% of the plan is assigned.

Currently, nine ministries, central agencies and nine localities have written requests to return the capital plan for adjustment to other ministries, central agencies and localities with a total capital of VND6,338 billion.

Clearly identify the weakness

The causes of the slow disbursement are diverse, however, through synthesizing reports from the working groups to inspect, they urge and remove difficulties and problems for production and business, as well as promote disbursement of capital. Public private sector in 2020 in a number of ministries, central and local agencies, the biggest difficulty in disbursement of public investment capital from the beginning of 2020 has been the organization of site clearance implementation, determining land origin, making appraisal and approving the compensation unit price.

Specifically, the main obstacle of the project to build a number of expressway sections on the North - South East route in the 2017-2020 period is the site clearance and resettlement of the component projects. This task is the responsibility of the locality (the project passes through 13 localities).

According to Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, promoting and disbursing all public investment capital in 2020 is one of the key tasks of the Government. Therefore, the Ministry of Planning and Investment recommends that Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Governmental agencies and leaders of localities need to define the task of economic recovery and development in the context of economic development. Covid-19 combatis a key political task in 2020, in which accelerating disbursement of public investment capital is crucial.

Existence and weaknesses must be clearly identified in the stages from directing, administering, and managing to organize the implementation of investment projects. Determine the work of directing, inspecting, urging and promptly handling difficulties and problems in the disbursement of public investment capital, especially problems in investment procedures, site clearance, and acceptance procedures investment capital settlementare the key tasks of party committees and authorities at all levels.

Assign leaders to be responsible for monitoring the implementation progress, planning disbursement and site clearance of each project, urging and promptly removing difficulties and taking responsibility for the disbursement results of each project, considering this the basis for evaluating the assigned work completion level in 2020.

Ministries, central agencies and localities shall promptly coordinate with concerned ministries and specialized agencies in promptly removing difficulties and problems arising in the process of ground clearance and disbursement, meeting the requirements of demand for the construction progress of programs and projects.

Strictly and effectively implement the coordination and monitoring of the implementation of the public investment plan in 2020. At the same time, direct investors to promote the organization of online contractor selection to ensure publicity and transparency and efficiency in the implementation process.