8.31 trillion VND and public investment efficiency

This is an unprecedented figure, reflecting the country’s development aspirations in the period of moving towards double-digit growth. And because of this unprecedented scale, the core question is: how to use this resource to bring about the highest efficiency?

According to the Government 's report, the total investment demand for the 2026 - 2030 period of ministries, branches and localities is up to 8,662 trillion VND, of which the central budget capital accounts for 5,325 trillion VND. The current balance capacity is about 8,310 trillion VND, including 3,800 trillion VND from the central budget and 4,510 trillion VND from the local budget.

Although still lower than demand, this scale is nearly three times the public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period (VND 2.87 trillion). This is a large enough space to create breakthroughs in infrastructure, logistics, energy conversion and regional driving projects. Large capital scale means that the responsibility for using capital is also many times greater.

For many years, public investment has been considered a lever to stimulate growth, but its effectiveness has not been commensurate. Last week, in group discussions, many National Assembly deputies emphasized inherent bottlenecks such as: problems with land procedures, compensation, resettlement, capital allocation and especially poor investment preparation. A transport project can be delayed for years simply because of a lack of material mines, or because the locality has not completed site clearance. Some projects have to adjust the total investment amount three or four times, wasting time, increasing costs and reducing social efficiency.

These shortcomings show that if we only "chase after the disbursement rate", we can easily fall into the trap of speed but lack of quality. Disbursement is fast but investment is spread out, and efficiency cannot be measured, then public capital can turn into a burden on the budget, not a driving force for growth.

With the "huge" public investment resources in the coming period, it is necessary to emphasize the mindset of "result management" instead of "expenditure management". Each public investment project must be quantified by specific indicators: increasing labor productivity, reducing logistics costs, improving regional competitiveness, improving the quality of public services or the level of spillover to the private sector. Only when we measure actual output, can we know whether public capital is really effective or not.

Also because the capital plan is so large, if only 1% is misused or wasted, the amount of money lost is equivalent to tens of thousands of billions of VND. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen project management capacity, the professionalism of investors and the accountability of each level of management. Information transparency and social supervision must be considered an important line of defense. Each public investment project needs a mechanism to publicize progress, costs and implementation results, so that people and the press can monitor and supervise.

The 2026 - 2030 period is the hinge for the double-digit growth target, towards a high-income economy . If approved by the National Assembly, 8.31 trillion VND of public investment will be a huge resource, and when used wisely, that capital can become a lever for modern infrastructure, clean energy, smart cities and higher labor productivity... That is also the real effectiveness of public investment that the National Assembly, the Government and the whole society are expecting in the new development period.

Source: https://daibieunhandan.vn/8-31-trieu-ty-dong-va-hieu-qua-dau-tu-cong-10393391.html