National Assembly delegates from Hanoi propose applying special mechanisms to ODA projects

On the morning of November 18, continuing the tenth session, discussing in the hall about the draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management, delegate Pham Thi Thanh Mai, Vice Chairwoman of the City People's Council, Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Hanoi City, proposed to continue applying special mechanisms to avoid interruptions in the implementation of projects approved by competent authorities.

Delegate Pham Thi Thanh Mai speaks. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Delegate Pham Thi Thanh Mai highly appreciated the Government's reports and the examination reports of the National Assembly's Economic and Financial Committee regarding the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management.

Delegates support the promotion of decentralization, delegation of power, reduction of administrative procedures and improvement of efficiency in capital mobilization. In particular, in the draft Law on decentralization to the Prime Minister : Transferring the authority to decide on the annual re-lending limit and the Government guarantee limit from the Government to the Prime Minister. This helps to simplify and shorten the approval process.

The draft Law also assigns the Ministry of Finance the authority to decide on amendments, supplements, and extensions of ODA loan agreements and preferential loans that do not increase the Government's foreign debt repayment obligations. This creates flexibility in the implementation process and reduces administrative procedures.

To resolve difficulties in ODA project management, delegates suggested that the Government continue to research and revise specific contents. Regarding the issuance of local government bonds, the 2017 Law on Public Debt Management requires local governments to obtain approval from the Ministry of Finance on the terms and conditions of the bonds before issuance. The draft amended Law has removed this provision, delegating the authority to the provincial People's Committee to prepare a bond issuance plan and report to the provincial People's Council for approval.

Appreciating this content, however, the delegate proposed that for centrally-run cities, especially those localities that have been allowed by the National Assembly to have a special mechanism. That is, localities that issue with a total outstanding loan ratio higher than the average level and have specific regulations in a number of special laws and resolutions, this decentralization must still be implemented within the framework of the borrowing level and budget deficit level assigned by the National Assembly and approved in the annual budget estimate.

National Assembly delegates discussed in the hall on the morning of November 18. Photo: Quochoi.vn

Regarding the assignment of ODA loan and re-borrowing targets, the delegate said that according to Article 49 of the Law on Public Debt Management, the borrowing purposes of local governments include two contents: One is to offset the local budget deficit; two is to borrow to repay the principal debt of the local budget.

However, in recent years, when Hanoi entered the initial phase of the medium-term public investment plan or implemented important national and city-level projects, investment preparation work may have been slower than the first one or two years of the medium-term plan, and the calculation did not reach the level of deficit. However, Hanoi city was still calculated and allocated borrowing and assigned borrowing targets by the Central Government.

“Thus, while the harvest is bumper, the lending target is still assigned, which is not really reasonable. I suggest that in the management process or regulations, there should be provisions to resolve this problem,” the delegate suggested.

Regarding the transitional provisions, delegate Pham Thi Thanh Mai suggested that the drafting agency continue to review Article 3 of the draft Law to ensure clear regulations on programs and projects that have been approved by the National Assembly or the Government for special mechanisms and policies (including projects under the Capital Law 2024) to continue to apply that special mechanism, avoiding interruptions in the implementation of projects approved by competent authorities.

“We really hope for this because ODA projects must have inheritance and be clearly regulated in this Law to avoid agencies having to re-submit or transfer these cases when organizing implementation,” delegate Pham Thi Thanh Mai suggested.

According to delegates, through the reflection of a number of units, there are currently no regulations on the information system, data, and figures sharing on public debt between the central and local levels; debt calculation and repayment, and reconciliation between management agencies are currently done manually.

To make public debt management more effective and at the same time meet the requirements of digital transformation according to Resolution 57 of the Politburo, delegate Pham Thi Thanh Mai proposed that the Government consider and supplement a point in Clause 1, Article 15 of the Law on Public Debt Management in the direction that the Ministry of Finance is responsible for regulating a unified information system on public debt data between the Central and local levels and to each implementing unit to serve public debt management (such as: exchanging information, data, capital withdrawal reconciliation, debt repayment, etc.) to serve promptly and meet the requirements of digital transformation.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/dai-bieu-quoc-hoi-doan-ha-noi-de-nghi-ap-dung-co-che-dac-thu-voi-cac-du-an-oda-723726.html