Big resources, high pressure

The Government's 2025 Public Investment Plan is expected to be over VND790 trillion - a fairly large figure. This plan, if approved, will put pressure on the disbursement of public investment capital next year.

Public investment capital in 2025 is expected to increase by more than VND120,000 billion compared to this year. Photo : Duc Thanh

Prioritize key areas, avoid "capital waiting for projects"

The Government has had the first plans for the Public Investment Plan for 2025 - the final year of the Medium-Term Public Investment Plan 2021-2025.

Accordingly, in the report sent by the Government to the National Assembly Standing Committee right before the opening of the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly, the total investment demand in 2025 of ministries, branches and localities is nearly 871,000 billion VND. Of which, the central budget capital is more than 337,867 billion VND, local capital is 533,000 billion VND.

Investment demand continues to be very high. However, in the context of limited domestic resources, after calculating and evaluating the financial and budgetary targets for 2024 and the Socio-Economic Development Plan for 2025, the Medium-Term Public Investment Plan for the 2021-2025 period approved by the National Assembly, the Government plans to invest VND 790,727 billion in state budget capital in 2025, although it does not meet the demand, but it is higher than the figure of more than VND 670,000 billion in planned capital in 2024. Of which, the central budget capital is VND 315,000 billion, and the local budget capital is VND 475,727 billion.

These are only initial plans and must be submitted to the National Assembly for approval. However, the general principles for capital allocation have been clearly defined. That is, the level of capital allocation for each project must be consistent with the implementation and disbursement capacity in 2025, ensuring that it can be allocated and assigned in detail to the project before December 31, 2024; capital allocation for newly started projects will only be made after all outstanding debts for basic construction have been paid and all advanced capital has been recovered according to regulations.

Notably, 2025 is the final year of the 2021-2025 Medium-Term Investment Plan, so the Government requests that in 2025, ministries, central and local agencies prioritize allocating state budget capital for projects expected to be completed in the medium-term plan period; at the same time, allocate capital for investment preparation for new projects to be started in the following period.

In the report, the Government also pointed out that the 2025 Public Investment Plan continues to have many innovations, overcoming the situation of "capital waiting for projects" and the limitations and shortcomings in public investment. In particular, priority investment will be focused on important and key sectors and fields of the economy, capital will be allocated to important national and key transport projects with spillover effects, promoting socio-economic development, as well as tasks and projects under the Socio-economic Recovery and Development Program...

Big resources, high pressure

The 2025 Public Investment Plan submitted by the Government is still awaiting approval from the National Assembly. If this plan is approved, the disbursement pressure in 2025 will be even heavier than this year, because the total investment resources from the state budget are expected to be 120,000 billion VND higher than this year.

Meanwhile, the pressure to disburse public investment capital seems to have been present every year in recent years. This year is no exception, after 9 months, the disbursement has not reached 50% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister. That means, of the total investment resources of 670,000 billion VND this year, about 350,000 billion VND still needs to be disbursed. And there are only a few months left to concentrate on disbursement, in order to achieve the disbursement target of 95% set by the Government.

We will also have strong and drastic solutions to promptly overcome existing shortcomings and limitations to accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital from the beginning of 2025, especially for important national projects, key works and 3 national target programs.

- Mr. Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Planning and Investment

At a recent meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee, when discussing the socio-economic situation in 2024 and the plan for 2025, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that the Government is focusing on removing difficulties and obstacles, and resolutely promoting disbursement to achieve the set goals.

“We will also have strong and drastic solutions to promptly overcome existing shortcomings and limitations to accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital from the beginning of 2025, especially important national projects, key works and 3 national target programs,” said Minister Nguyen Chi Dung.

In this meeting, Chairman of the Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh also requested the Government to clarify the causes, thereby finding effective solutions to accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital and promote economic growth. For 2025, the requirement is also "to have specific and effective solutions to accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital from the beginning of the year".

To speed up the disbursement of public investment capital from the beginning of the year, it is important to allocate details to programs and projects early. From another perspective, improving the quality of project preparation is also a prerequisite so that as soon as capital is available, the project can be implemented and disbursed, avoiding the situation of "capital waiting for projects" as it has been for a long time.

In fact, project preparation is still considered poor. “It is necessary to determine that project investment preparation plays a decisive role. Focusing on doing well the investment preparation and project implementation preparation will help improve the readiness and feasibility, the ability to implement the project, limit obstacles in the implementation process, thereby speeding up the allocation and disbursement progress and improving the efficiency of using public investment capital,” Minister Nguyen Chi Dung has repeatedly affirmed this.

According to the Minister, this is one of the most important issues, not necessarily the “first” issue - “where is the money”.

Currently, to remove obstacles for public investment disbursement, institutional and policy reforms are also being implemented. The draft revised Law on Public Investment is continuing to be completed in the direction of facilitating institutions and policies, including project preparation - one of the weaknesses that slows down the disbursement of public investment capital.

According to Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh, the slow disbursement of public investment capital has raised urgent requirements for improving mechanisms and policies for public investment management. Specifically, there should be more flexible and effective mechanisms and policies to encourage localities and units to be proactive and active in disbursing capital. In addition, for projects that are behind schedule, it is necessary to consider adjusting capital plans, prioritizing capital allocation for projects with the ability to disburse quickly...

These revision efforts will certainly contribute significantly to the rapid and effective implementation of the 2025 Public Investment Plan, as soon as it is officially approved by the National Assembly.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/ke-hoach-dau-tu-cong-2025-nguon-luc-lon-ap-luc-cao-d227883.html