Lacking money, resources and mechanisms, the Dien Ban town government has proposed many issues to the Provincial People's Council to create more motivation for local development.
Difficulty due to economic downturn
The socio-economic report of Dien Ban town presented to the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council on June 14, 2023 showed that the local economy and businesses are facing many difficulties. The industrial production value in the first 6 months of 2023 is estimated to be less than 10,073 billion VND, down 13.67% over the same period.
Industry has declined sharply and is gradually weakening. Even Dien Nam - Dien Ngoc Industrial Park, considered the main growth driver of the town for many years, has also decreased its industrial production value by more than 10.35% (only reaching nearly 7,951 billion VND).
Chairman of the Town People's Committee Tran Uc said that industrial production has declined sharply. The market is difficult, businesses lack orders, face high input material costs..., and are under great pressure to maintain production and economic growth.
Comrade Phan Viet Cuong - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council said that all recommendations of Dien Ban town will be compiled by the management agencies and submitted to the People's Council for consideration and decision. If the resolutions are found to be ineffective or problematic, the Provincial People's Council will promptly remove, adjust or amend them for the whole province, not just Dien Ban.
Public investment, which is expected to be the main driver of local growth this year, has yet to deliver the expected results. The total investment of 252 projects is about VND 4,670 billion, of which only about VND 2,100 billion (44.9%) has been allocated and the total implementation volume has reached 35% (VND 1,600 billion). However, the disbursement rate is still slow. As of May 31, 2023, it has only reached 21% of the plan.
The state of exhaustion of enterprises is clearly shown through the estimated town budget revenue by June 30, 2023 of only over 1,282 billion VND, reaching 45.95% of the estimate assigned by the Town People's Council. According to calculations, the total local budget revenue enjoyed at the rate is only about 385.4 billion VND (reaching 31.67% of the estimate).
Land use fee revenue (50% of which is allocated to the province) only reached 0.64% of the estimate and land use fee revenue enjoyed by the town 100% also only reached 18.18% of the estimate. Total budget expenditure estimated to be implemented by June 30, 2023 is about 747.3 billion VND.
Mr. Tran Uc said that according to the current budget collection progress, the town will lose about 450 billion VND in land use fees. Expenditures up to this point have met the budget estimate. However, with the current revenue results, the town will not have enough capital to balance investment expenditures from now until the end of the year, even though the taxes collected in the regular expenditure balance in 2023 may reach and exceed.
The local economy will continue to face difficulties due to fluctuations in market demand and world geopolitics . Dien Ban Town is no exception. District authorities cannot intervene, change the market, internal production and business of enterprises or have the authority to "resolve" overlapping regulations to implement investment projects or increase disbursement rates to seek additional growth resources. The Town has requested the Provincial People's Committee and competent authorities to provide specific guidance, but some of the recommendations have not yet received specific answers.
Many recommendations
With no other choice, Dien Ban town was forced to petition the Provincial People's Council to find a driving force to promote local development. The town wanted to ask for investment in building a "permanent" saltwater barrier dam on Vinh Dien river to keep fresh water, creating irrigation water for 1,855 hectares of agricultural land, instead of having to spend 3 - 4 billion VND each year for the past 10 years to build a temporary dam with sand.
The town government proposed to transfer the domestic water supply and environmental sanitation treatment system in the Go Noi area to specialized agencies of the province for management, operation and exploitation. The communes in this area refused to manage and operate this system on the grounds of large assets, insufficient management capacity and lack of operational expertise.
Not only recommending investment or management mechanisms, Dien Ban town authorities also "asked" for compensation for the 2022 budget deficit (nearly 224 billion VND) because some local tax collection targets for 2022 were not close to the budget collection capacity or to support the town with nearly 65 billion VND that had been paid back to the provincial budget for projects using provincial budget capital that were past the disbursement deadline according to regulations due to site clearance problems.
The town requested to promptly supplement the 60.08 billion VND fund to support people facing difficulties due to COVID-19 that the locality had advanced in 2022 to repay the budget and requested to allocate 25 billion VND to pay off outstanding basic construction debts for the Bac Quang Nam Sports Center project.
The total investment capital for 2023-2025 to build key projects in the town is expected to be about 13,000 billion VND and to implement programs and projects according to the resolution of the Provincial People's Council, the local budget will not be able to ensure a balance of about 1,500 billion VND. The town government proposed that the province increase the rate of regulating land use funds for projects invested by enterprises arising in the town from 50% to 70%.
The shortage of staff has made many local activities difficult. The town "asked" to increase the number of staff in the urban code inspection team, the central apparatus for land fund development, establish an apparatus for the management board of urban development areas or build a new high school in the East and central areas of the town because the number of students is increasing...
The management agency acknowledged that the recommendations were reasonable, but not easy to implement. Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan - Deputy Director of the Department of Finance said that it was impossible to change the rate of land use fee regulation because according to the Budget Law, the decentralized mechanism was stable for 5 years.
Deputy Directors Le Thuy Trinh (Department of Natural Resources and Environment) and Ngo Ngoc Hung (Department of Construction) both said that there is no legal basis to establish an urban development management board or add staff and apparatus to the land fund development center and urban rules team.
Mr. Truong Xuan Ty - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that he had intended to hold a workshop on investing in the construction of a saltwater dam with little impact on the environment, but there was no official opinion on the investment policy.
According to Mr. Tran Van An - Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment, it is necessary to study the feasibility of investing in a saltwater dam. However, in the context of limited resources, it can only be included in the investment portfolio for 2026 - 2030.
In addition, businesses are not interested in investing in clean water because the management mechanism is ambiguous and unclear, so a more specific mechanism is needed to manage and operate this system in Go Noi.
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