Minister of Planning and Investment: 'Removing institutional bottlenecks will be a breakthrough of breakthroughs'

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung acknowledged that General Secretary To Lam said institutions are the bottleneck of bottlenecks. Therefore, removing institutional bottlenecks would be the "breakthrough of breakthroughs."

"If we spend years going through each procedure, we'll lose all opportunities."

On the morning of October 26th, during a group discussion at the National Assembly session, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung assessed that one of the five difficulties and challenges facing the economy is the slow recovery of investment, while resolving these difficulties and bottlenecks remains a major obstacle. Emphasizing solutions, Mr. Dung stated that the first solution is to improve the institutional framework.

"This can be considered a breakthrough of breakthroughs. The General Secretary said that institutions are the bottleneck of bottlenecks, but if we can remove them, then this is a breakthrough of breakthroughs," Mr. Dung said.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung delivered his remarks at the working group meeting on October 26.

PHOTO: GIA HAN

According to the head of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, institutional work is receiving attention and is being carried out very decisively. Recently, General Secretary To Lam also placed very high demands on the work of building and perfecting the legal system.

Mr. Dung stated that at this session, the Government is presenting many groundbreaking policies to the National Assembly. Specifically, in the Law on Public Investment, the Government proposes separating land clearance projects into independent projects for Group B and C projects to allow for prior preparation; decentralizing and delegating authority to allow localities to invest in projects under the responsibility of the central government or in inter-regional projects of other localities…

The Investment Law also represents a significant breakthrough by proposing a "green channel" design for high-tech projects to simplify procedures and licensing time; allowing them to independently prepare and approve environmental impact assessment and fire safety reports, and assume responsibility for their own actions, without having to submit them to higher authorities as before.

"If we can reform like that, it will be very powerful. Otherwise, if we spend years working on each procedure, we will lose all opportunities," Mr. Dung stated.

Citing further examples from the Law on Investment under the Public-Private Partnership Method, Mr. Dung said that this amendment will restore the BT (Build-Transfer) contract model, which had previously been discontinued. The Politburo has authorized the restoration of this BT contract model.

Emphasizing that this institutional building effort is groundbreaking and overcomes bottlenecks in lawmaking in the past, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung stated that the spirit is to strongly innovate thinking. Previously, the focus was on management; now, it is necessary to both manage and create, develop, thereby unleashing productive forces and unlocking resources.

Secondly, we must strengthen decentralization, delegation of power, and clear assignment of responsibilities. The spirit of the recent 10th Central Committee Conference was "local authorities decide, local authorities act, and local authorities are responsible."

"What will the Government and the National Assembly do? The National Assembly and the Government will play a constructive role, building legislation and policy mechanisms, while strengthening inspection and supervision. That's 'playing the right role' as General Secretary To Lam stated," Mr. Dung analyzed.

Resolving obstacles in land-related projects nationwide.

The Minister of Planning and Investment also stated that another difficult issue is the backlog of land-related projects. The General Secretary has requested the Government to establish a state steering committee to address this problem.

The steering committee is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh. The Minister of Planning and Investment serves as Vice-Chairman, and it also includes the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Supreme People's Court, the Government Inspectorate, and the Ministry of Public Security.

"How can we review all the projects that have been stalled for 5-10 years? Based on that, we can categorize them and determine how to handle them in a way that ensures no wrongdoing is justified. If we can do this, we will unlock a huge amount of resources," Mr. Dung said.

The Minister of Planning and Investment also informed that, based on initial reviews, there are currently about 160 stalled land projects, with a value of approximately 59,000 billion VND. "But there are certainly many more. We will conduct a comprehensive review to see how many projects are stalled in each locality and how much money is still outstanding nationwide. At the same time, we will categorize them to develop policies to address each group," Mr. Dung added.

According to Mr. Dung, resolving the stalled projects would not only free up significant resources but also contribute directly to growth, tax revenue, and help many businesses whose capital is tied up in these projects.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bo-truong-kh-dt-thao-go-diem-nghen-the-che-se-la-dot-pha-cua-dot-pha-18524102615262811.htm