Need an 'open' mechanism for private sector to participate in public investment

Disbursement of public investment capital is low

According to Mr. James Anderson - Chief Public Sector Specialist, World Bank (WB): In 2024, Vietnam's public investment disbursement will only reach 77.55% of the set plan, while high-income countries often achieve public investment disbursement of over 96% of the set plan.

Public investment is the growth driver in 2025. Illustrative photo

In the first 4 months of the year, according to data released by the Ministry of Finance , public investment disbursement was VND 128,512.9 billion, reaching 15.56% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister. Lower than the same period in 2024 when the public investment disbursement rate reached 16.64% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

According to economic experts, public investment disbursement plays an extremely important role, especially in the context of Vietnam aiming for growth of 8% or more in 2025 and double-digit growth in the 2026-2030 period. To achieve this goal, the Government has directed a determination to set a target of 100% public investment disbursement in 2025.

To promote investment capital disbursement in 2025, the Prime Minister has also continuously issued supporting documents and policies. Public investment contents are always included in the working programs of the Government Standing Committee meetings, regular Government meetings, and meetings of ministries and branches, demonstrating the continuity and consistency in leadership and direction.

However, after 1/3 of the way to 2025, the disbursement of public investment capital has only reached 15.56% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister, much lower than the set target.

In particular, according to statistics as of April 30, 2025, there are 17 ministries, central agencies and 21 localities that have not yet fully allocated the capital plan assigned by the Prime Minister with a total capital of nearly 8 trillion VND, which must be fully allocated in May 2025. There are 37/47 ministries, agencies and 27/63 localities with disbursement rates below the national average, in which some units are assigned large capital but have low disbursement rates.

One-third of the way to 2025 has passed, but public investment disbursement has only reached 15.56% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister. Illustrative photo

Untie public investment bottlenecks , create economic growth momentum

According to Mr. James Anderson, public investment disbursement is affected by many policies and related agencies.

More specifically, the WB expert said: "Although public investment capital is allocated according to the Law on Public Investment, the regular budget is allocated according to the Law on State Budget" . Accordingly, the disbursement of public investment capital often does not meet expectations.

The report Vietnam 2045 - Breakthrough: Institutions for a high-income future recently published by the World Bank also stated that long preparation time, low preparation quality and cumbersome procedures when having to handle project adjustments are also the reasons leading to low disbursement of public investment capital.

The Ministry of Finance's recent report on the disbursement of public investment capital also clearly stated that a number of groups of difficulties affect the disbursement of public investment capital, including: Difficulties in mechanisms and policies; slow capital allocation; implementation organization is still stuck; local budget revenue from land is not guaranteed according to the estimate; related to the national target program, no adjustment decisions have been issued, instructions are still slow and complicated. Along with that, local apprehension and limitations in land funds, low support levels cause difficulties in implementation and disbursement.

To achieve the set target of disbursing public investment capital in 2025, the Ministry of Finance also proposed solutions. In particular, with the allocated capital, ministries, branches and localities need to continue to strictly implement the Government's direction, and proactively review and handle arising problems to speed up the implementation of public investment projects.

In addition, large-scale projects, technically complex projects or projects spanning many areas need special attention in organization and supervision to avoid delays due to construction conditions, lack of materials or administrative problems. At the same time, monitoring the progress of public investment disbursement needs to be closely carried out on a monthly and quarterly basis, as a basis for adjusting appropriate capital plans, prioritizing urgent projects with high disbursement potential.

Acknowledging that public investment disbursement plays an extremely important role in Vietnam's economic growth target in 2025 and the entire 2026-2030 period, economic expert Tran Dinh Thien - former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute, member of the Prime Minister's Policy Advisory Council - said that it is necessary to facilitate all economic sectors to participate in public investment disbursement, in which it is especially necessary to create conditions for the private economic sector to participate in this field.

According to the report of the Ministry of Finance, the total public investment capital plan for 2025 is VND 888,087.9 billion. Specifically: The Prime Minister assigned VND 825,922.3 billion; the local budget capital self-balanced, increased compared to the plan assigned by the Prime Minister by VND 50,716 billion; the planned capital from previous years allowed to be extended to 2025 is VND 11,449.7 billion.

Nguyen Hoa

Source: https://congthuong.vn/can-co-che-mo-de-tu-nhan-tham-gia-dau-tu-cong-389139.html