Accelerate disbursement of public investment capital

Although disbursement of public investment capital after 10 months is very positive, there is still about VND 300,000 billion more that needs to be implemented and disbursed until January 2024 - when the 2023 budget period ends.

 Public investment disbursement has changed dramatically. In the photo: Mai Son Expressway Project - National Highway 45. Photo: Duc Thanh

Becoming positive

Not only "positive", Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung used the phrase "strong change" when reporting to the Government on the disbursement of public investment capital in the 10 months of 2023.

“Disbursement of public investment capital has changed dramatically, actively supporting economic growth, creating jobs and output for many industries and fields; At the same time, expanding production capacity, contributing to creating momentum for growth and development in the medium and long term," said Minister Nguyen Chi Dung.

Data from the Ministry of Finance, it is estimated that by the end of October 2023, disbursement of public investment capital will be over 401,860 billion VND, reaching 56.74% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister, up to 5.5 percentage points higher than compared to the same period in 2022 (51.34%). In particular, in October 2023 alone, the disbursed capital amounted to over 56,165 billion VND, much higher than the average figure of over 40,000 billion VND in 10 months.

“The above results show the solutions and promotion of disbursement of the 2023 state budget capital investment plan of the Government, the Prime Minister, and the activities of working groups and delegations of the Government. to check and remove difficulties, as well as the efforts of all levels, sectors and units using public investment capital across the country are promoting effectiveness, bringing positive signals in disbursement of investment capital . private sector", said Minister Nguyen Chi Dung.

Last year, at the same time, public investment capital disbursement only reached over 297,774 billion VND. Thus, in terms of absolute numbers, disbursement of public investment capital in 10 months of this year is over 100,000 billion VND higher than in 10 months of last year.

Not only disbursement of public investment capital in general, the report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment at the Government's regular meeting in October 2023 shows that the estimated disbursement of the 2023 capital plan of the Recovery and Development Program socio-economic development by October 31, 2023 reached 72,477 billion VND, equivalent to 58.7% of the 2023 capital plan that has been allocated in detail by ministries, agencies and localities.

This rate, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, has had a "more positive change" compared to September 2023 (46.1%).

The numbers are positive, especially when up to this point, 8 ministries, central agencies and 27 localities have disbursed over 60% of the plan. However, there are still 42 ministries, central agencies and 29 localities disbursing below the national average.

Moreover, because this year's public investment capital is allocated to be large (more than 700,000 billion VND), the remaining 3 months (up to the end of January 2024, when the 2023 budget period ends), must be resolved. amounted to over 300,000 billion VND. If based on the target set by the Government, which is 95% disbursement, or at least VND 676,000 billion, there is still over VND 274,000 billion of public investment capital that needs to be brought into the economy. A significant pressure, especially when this includes a large budget from the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program, which needs to be fully disbursed this year.

Accelerate disbursement of public investment

The pressure is very heavy, so in the sprint race, ministries, branches and localities must continue to speed up the disbursement of public investment capital.

"Ministries, agencies and localities need to continue to promote the achieved results, strive to disburse at least 95% of the assigned 2023 capital plan," Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said and emphasized, with the Chapter The same goes for Recovery. The remaining time to implement the Program is very short, the amount of remaining capital of the Program needs to be disbursed a lot, therefore, ministries, agencies and localities need to continue and make efforts to disburse the maximum capital plan of the Program. submit.

Regarding the disbursement of public investment capital, at a recent discussion session in the National Assembly, many delegates also emphasized the need to focus on disbursement of public investment capital, thereby promoting economic growth. .

Delegate Pham Hung Thang (Ha Nam) is worried that not only localities, but now central ministries and branches are also having difficulty disbursing public investment capital. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on promotion.

Delegate Hoang Duc Thang (Quang Tri) mentioned difficulties and inadequacies in foundation materials and the risk of affecting the progress of key national projects. “Granting permits to exploit materials from localities still takes a long time. Even the mine areas, materials, and planning assigned to contractors to carry out mining licensing procedures are cumbersome and complicated," Mr. Hoang Duc Thang said.

This is one of the "hot" issues recently, causing some projects, including key national projects, to have difficulty implementing . The government has had many solutions, but the situation has not improved much.

“It is necessary to strictly handle cases of violation, obstruction, and slowdown of capital delivery and disbursement progress. At the same time, urgently improve the capacity of investors and construction contractors," delegate Thach Phuoc Binh (Tra Vinh) suggested.

Meanwhile, delegate Le Huu Tri (Khanh Hoa) was impatient that the disbursement of projects using ODA capital and foreign concessional loans was not as expected. According to delegate Le Huu Tri, in recent times, many projects with ODA loans and foreign preferential loans have been disbursed slowly, prolonging their implementation time. Every year, the number of state budget transfers is large, even generating additional costs, wasting resources and reducing the efficiency of loan use.

“While the budget must borrow to cover overspending and must bear interest to pay commitment fees, this is a paradox. Currently and in the future, mobilizing ODA loans from foreign concessional loans will be increasingly difficult with unfavorable financial conditions and interest rates... Therefore, mobilizing and allocating and the use of ODA capital needs to be carefully considered, ensuring the efficiency of capital use, avoiding waste and creating a public debt burden," delegate Le Huu Tri expressed.

Looking at a longer-term perspective, delegate Nguyen Thi Le (Ho Chi Minh City) also "contributed a plan" to accelerate the implementation of the Medium-term Public Investment Plan for the period 2021-2025. "For each project, it is necessary to develop a detailed roadmap and plan, promptly remove difficulties, and propose solutions to achieve and exceed the set targets," delegate Nguyen Thi Le said, saying, One of the reasons slowing down the progress of public investment projects, greatly affecting the rate of project disbursement is problems in site clearance work. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on solving this problem.

Regarding the disbursement of public investment capital, at the regular Government meeting in October 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh once again emphasized that ministries, branches and localities must consider it a political task. focus, to focus on promoting disbursement, as well as tightening public investment discipline.

According to Investment Newspaper