Boosting foreign capital disbursement: Key to boosting growth in 2025

Both short-term and long-term solutions need to be clear.

This afternoon, October 15, the Ministry of Finance held an online conference on the disbursement of foreign-funded public investment capital in 2025. The conference was chaired by Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Quoc Phuong, with the participation of representatives from 8 central ministries, branches and 31 localities.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong emphasized that foreign capital public investment accounts for a significant proportion of the country's total public investment, so accelerating the disbursement of this capital source is not only an urgent requirement to promote growth but also a key task to ensure effective use of loans and maintain national prestige with international partners.

Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong delivered the opening speech. Photo: Duc Minh.

Since the beginning of the year, the results of public investment disbursement have shown positive changes, but have not yet met the set requirements. The Government and the Prime Minister have issued a series of resolutions, telegrams and instructions to remove difficulties, but the progress of implementation is still slow.

According to plan, this weekend the Prime Minister will chair a national conference on public investment disbursement, so this meeting at the Ministry of Finance is also an activity to prepare and contribute important content for the upcoming national meeting.

The leader of the Ministry of Finance stated: “The goal of completing the disbursement of 100% of public investment capital by 2025 is an extremely important task. To achieve this, we must continuously review, urge and promote the disbursement progress, especially for public investment capital from foreign sources.”

Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong suggested that ministries, branches and localities focus on frank and substantive discussions to clarify the reasons why, although many mechanisms and regulations have been removed, the results have not improved significantly.

The Deputy Minister also requested units to classify solutions into two groups. Short-term, urgent solutions need to be implemented immediately in the remaining 2 months of 2025, to accelerate disbursement in the fourth quarter. Long-term, fundamental solutions: applied for the period after 2025, to thoroughly handle long-standing problems, ensuring a more sustainable disbursement progress.

The conference was connected online with the participation of 8 central ministries and branches and 31 localities. Photo: Duc Minh.

According to the Ministry of Finance’s assessment, although the legal system and operating mechanism have been significantly improved, many “bottlenecks” still exist, such as compensation, site clearance, investment procedures, or coordination between levels and sectors. These are traditional causes but are still slow to be overcome, directly affecting the effectiveness of public investment implementation.

The leaders of the Ministry of Finance affirmed that the conference is an opportunity for ministries, branches and localities to share experiences, identify difficulties, propose practical solutions, and at the same time help the Ministry of Finance synthesize a comprehensive report to submit to the Prime Minister and the Government. This report will clearly indicate objective and subjective causes, along with specific proposals, to promote the disbursement of public investment capital in general and ODA capital in particular in the coming time.

“We have almost reached the end of this term, but some problems still recur over the years. The goal is that next year, we will no longer have to discuss old issues, but must switch to new, more effective ways of doing things,” Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong suggested.

Disbursement is still slow, many "bottlenecks" need to be removed

Reporting at the conference, Mr. Vu Hoang Nam - Deputy Director of the Department of Debt Management and Foreign Economic Relations (Ministry of Finance) said that 2025 is a pivotal year, accelerating and completing the 2021-2025 Socio-Economic Development Plan, while preparing for the 14th National Party Congress and the new development stage. The Government and the Prime Minister have directed strongly, issued many resolutions and telegrams, including the request to speed up the progress, striving to disburse 100% of public investment capital.

Ministries, branches and localities are assigned to review, remove obstacles and ensure progress, especially for ODA projects. Many working groups and online conferences have been deployed to promote disbursement. Along with that, new policies such as Law No. 90/2025/QH15 and Decree 242/2025/ND-CP have been issued, increasing decentralization, simplifying procedures, perfecting the legal corridor, creating conditions to promote disbursement of public investment capital, contributing to promoting economic growth in 2025.

Mr. Vu Hoang Nam - Deputy Director of the Department of Debt Management and Foreign Economic Relations (Ministry of Finance) reported at the conference. Photo: Duc Minh.

For its part, the Ministry of Finance always considers the disbursement of public investment capital, both domestic and foreign, as a key task to contribute to the completion of socio-economic development goals. According to Mr. Nam, in recent times, the Ministry has synchronously deployed many measures to promote disbursement progress, issued a series of official dispatches and telegrams urging ministries, branches and localities to urgently allocate, enter budget estimates and disburse capital.

In the context of merging administrative units and implementing the two-level local government model, the Ministry has proactively guided and handled issues related to re-loan contracts, coordinated with donors to adjust foreign loan agreements, and ensured continuity in project implementation.

As of October 14, 2025, the total foreign capital plan for 2025 assigned by the Prime Minister is more than VND 23,416 billion, of which ministries and branches receive VND 11,060 billion and localities VND 12,356 billion; along with that, VND 2,178 billion of capital in 2024 is extended to 2025.

To date, 85.63% of the capital plan has been entered in detail by ministries, branches and localities on the Tabmis system; of which, localities have achieved 92.14%, ministries and branches have achieved 78.35%. Some units such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Training, the National University of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City... have allocated 100% of the capital plan.

The Ministry of Finance also regularly works directly with ministries, localities and major donors to remove difficulties and speed up the disbursement of ODA projects and preferential loans.

Regarding procedures, the Ministry has reviewed the process of handling capital withdrawal dossiers, shortening the processing time to one working day for valid dossiers, ensuring progress and efficiency in using public investment capital.

Although quite drastic, the foreign capital disbursement rate by mid-October 2025 only reached 18.68%, much lower than the same period last year (30.6%) and far from the 100% target as directed by the Government.

There are 5 ministries, branches and localities that have not yet disbursed funds, mainly due to slow site clearance, problems with bidding procedures, project adjustments, loan agreements, slow donor approval or impacts from administrative unit mergers and natural disasters.

To speed up disbursement in the last months of the year, the Ministry of Finance recommends that ministries, branches and localities: speed up investment procedures, complete project legal documents; proactively coordinate with sponsors to remove obstacles; strictly control progress, promptly report arising issues; and focus on disbursing eligible projects, ensuring the completion of the disbursement target of 100% of the capital plan in 2025.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/day-manh-giai-ngan-von-nuoc-ngoai-chia-khoa-thuc-day-tang-truong-nam-2025-d413664.html