Hanoi removes obstacles, speeds up disbursement of public investment plans

On March 26, the Standing Committee of the Hanoi Party Committee - People's Council - People's Committee held an online meeting for the first quarter of 2024 with leaders of districts, towns and cities.

The conference was chaired by Party Central Committee member, Standing Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee Nguyen Thi Tuyen; Party Central Committee member, Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, Chairman of the City People's Committee Tran Sy Thanh. Also attending were members of the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee; leaders of the City People's Committee.

Standing Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee Nguyen Thi Tuyen and Chairman of the City People's Committee Tran Sy Thanh chaired the conference.

The conference focused on 4 contents: implementing activities to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of the Capital (October 10, 1954 - October 10, 2024); handover, renovation, upgrading and investment in the construction of new parks and flower gardens in the city; promoting the implementation of the 5-year medium-term public investment plan (2021 - 2025) and accelerating the progress of project implementation, disbursement of public investment plans in 2024 and 2025; rearranging administrative units in Hanoi in the period of 2023-2025.

In 2024, the capital allocation plan is 81,033 billion VND.

Presenting a report on promoting the implementation of the 5-year medium-term public investment plan 2021-2025; speeding up the implementation and disbursement of the public investment plan for 2024 and 2025, Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Ha Minh Hai said that the total medium-term plan source of the whole city to date is 340,153 billion VND. To date, the city has allocated 46,141 billion VND in 2021, 51,583 billion VND in 2022, 57,305 billion VND in 2023, and 81,033 billion VND in 2024.

The results and disbursement rate in the past years have tended to increase. In which, the total 5-year plan source of the whole city to date is 340,153 billion VND, of which the capital allocation plan for 2024 is 81,033 billion VND.

Regarding the 5-year medium-term public investment plan for 2021-2025 at the city level, the cumulative capital plan allocated from 2021 to present is VND 144,878 billion (reaching 57%); the remaining capital to be allocated from now until the end of 2025 is VND 109,437 billion (equivalent to 43% of the total medium-term capital plan). Regarding the implementation of city-level projects, 230 projects in the 2021-2023 period have been completed to date and it is expected that 115 projects will be completed in 2024.

Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Ha Minh Hai presented a report at the conference.

Regarding the implementation of the 2024 public investment plan, the city was assigned 81,033 billion VND; reinvestment expenditure for districts, towns and cities from one-time land rent payments was 521 billion VND. By March 20, 2024, the entire city had disbursed 7,019 billion VND (equivalent to 8.7% of the plan). The remaining disbursement amount was 74,014 billion VND (1.3 times higher than the entire 2023 plan).

Assessing the implementation capacity and disbursement commitment of the units, Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Ha Minh Hai said that for city-level projects, projects using city-level budget capital to support district-level targets, all units basically strive and commit to disbursing over 95% of the assigned plan. For projects using 100% of district-level budget capital, 29/30 districts, towns and cities are expected to commit to disbursing 100% of the capital plan.

In the coming time, for city-level projects, the City will review and determine the feasibility of implementation and disbursement in 2024 and 2025. At the same time, focus on accelerating the progress of key projects and projects transitioning from the 2016-2020 period to the 2021-2025 period. Based on the assessment of the feasibility of resources and implementation capacity of the projects, the Party Committee of the City People's Committee directs the review and reports to the City Party Committee and the City People's Council at the July 2024 City People's Council meeting on a number of specific contents.

Regarding the preparation for the 5-year medium-term public investment plan for 2026-2030, Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Ha Minh Hai said that the city will review all tasks and projects to transfer to the plan for the 2026-2030 period. The Party Committee of the City People's Committee directs departments and branches to develop orientations for the development of sectors and fields in general, and orientations for the investment plan of the sector in the period of 2026-2030. At the same time, balance capital sources, research, and select a list of projects to prepare for investment in the period of 2026-2030.

Remove difficulties, speed up progress

Participating in the discussion at the conference, delegates pointed out the difficulties and obstacles in accelerating the current progress of public investment disbursement. For projects supporting district-level targets, delegates agreed with the city's policy to review and adjust the medium-term public investment plan and the 2024 district-level plan to arrange sufficient counterpart capital to complete the city-level budget project supporting the target; only allocate capital for new district-level projects when sufficient counterpart capital has been arranged.

Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Le Anh Quan speaks at the conference. — Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Le Anh Quan speaks at the conference

Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Le Anh Quan is interested in the results of the implementation of the Medium-term Plan and 2024. Specifically, the city's 2024 plan is assigned VND 81,033 billion and this figure is VND 54,100 billion higher than that of 2023. Therefore, accelerating the implementation of public investment projects is important to ensure the proposed Plan.

According to Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Le Anh Quan, by the March 2024 meeting, if the City People's Council approves the policy of all 16 projects submitted by the City People's Committee, there will be 63 projects in the list of expected capital sources, but the investment policy has not been approved, with a total expected investment of 163,971 billion VND and 180 projects approved in principle but not yet approved. This is a huge resource for us to absorb capital, but districts are currently facing many difficulties in disbursing public investment such as site clearance, many transitional projects are prolonged....

On that basis, the Department of Planning and Investment advises the City People's Committee to implement the following topics: Transferring investment sources; implementation stages; accelerating payment and settlement; and project support issues. With these topics, Hanoi will focus on clarifying the responsibilities of agencies and units to ensure the progress and time of implementing public investment projects.

Director of the City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board Nguyen Chi Cuong spoke at the conference.

Discussing the progress of approving investment policies for projects expected to be implemented in the 2024-2025 period, Director of the City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board Nguyen Chi Cuong said that currently, the City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board has 1 project that has not been approved for investment policy, which is the Tu Lien Bridge Construction Investment Project and the road from Tu Lien Bridge to Hanoi - Thai Nguyen Expressway. Currently, the Department of Planning and Investment is reviewing to report to the City People's Committee to consider converting from the form of investment under the public-private partnership (PPP) method to public investment.

Regarding the progress of implementing projects that have been approved for investment policies and have not yet been approved, Director of the City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board Nguyen Chi Cuong said that after reviewing, there are currently 4 projects that have been approved for investment policies but have not yet been approved for projects. Therefore, the Management Board is focusing on promoting the progress of completing investment procedures and is expected to have 4/4 projects approved by competent authorities in the second and third quarters of 2024.

Regarding the implementation status and disbursement of the planned funds for ongoing projects, the Director of the City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board said that 14/52 projects have been completed so far. The Management Board will continue to implement and complete 23 projects in 2024 and 2025 and complete 14 projects after 2025.

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