Removing obstacles, speeding up public investment disbursement

There is still nearly 630,000 billion VND of public investment capital that needs to be accelerated into projects. Photo: Duc Thanh

Speed up construction of key projects

A few days ago, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha conducted a field inspection and worked with ministries, branches, localities and contractors on the progress of the Long Thanh International Airport Project - one of the country's key infrastructure projects. Acknowledging the improvement in the project's progress, the Deputy Prime Minister still requested units to focus on fulfilling their commitments and not allowing delays to affect the project's operational plan.

“If the airport is operational soon, the country will benefit economically and in terms of connectivity. If it is delayed, the responsibility lies with those who do not act according to their commitments,” Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha emphasized.

Not only with the Long Thanh International Airport Project, there are continuous urges to speed up the progress of key projects. While Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung directed to focus on thoroughly and decisively handling obstacles to speed up the implementation progress and complete 5 component projects of the North-South Expressway Construction Project in the Eastern Region in the 2021-2025 period, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son urged the progress of the Tuyen Quang - Ha Giang Expressway Project through Ha Giang Province, the Tuyen Quang - Ha Giang Expressway Project through Tuyen Quang Province and the Dong Dang - Tra Linh, Huu Nghi - Chi Lang projects.

The Deputy Prime Ministers themselves have inspected to "push" the progress of the above projects, with the unchanged goal of ensuring the completion of the target of 3,000 km of expressway in 2025. Along with that, the target of disbursing 100% of public investment capital must be completed this year.

Currently, although the progress of key projects has improved, the amount of work to be done is large, while the remaining time is not much. As for public investment disbursement in general, according to Deputy Minister of Finance Do Thanh Trung, the progress has "accelerated significantly", higher in both absolute and relative terms compared to the same period last year in the first 5 months of the year (the first 5 months of this year reached nearly 200,000 billion VND, reaching 24.13% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister - PV), but the pressure to disburse in the second half of the year is very large. There are still nearly 630,000 billion VND that need to be accelerated into projects, of which about 8,000 billion VND has not been allocated in detail.

According to a report from the Ministry of Finance, there are still many ministries, branches and localities with low disbursement rates, even very low, below 10%. Of which, 7 localities have disbursement rates below 15%, such as Lai Chau, Binh Phuoc, Binh Duong, Cao Bang, Dong Nai, Phu Yen, Ben Tre.

"A hundred tangled threads" need to be untangled

In a recent report, the Ministry of Finance has “named and shamed” a series of reasons why public investment disbursement remains one of the concerns of the economy. Site clearance is an example.

“This is the most common cause. Two ministries, central agencies and 33 localities reported problems with compensation, land acquisition, resettlement and lack of consensus from the people... Site clearance is the first step in the project implementation process but is very complicated, causing chain delays for the project,” the Ministry of Finance report said.

Regarding the issue of site clearance, there have been many problems, including problems related to the implementation of the 2024 Land Law. Just one example is that according to the provisions of the 2013 Land Law, the price of land use fees for resettlement allocation is based on the specific land price and land allocation limit of each locality, but according to the provisions of the 2024 Land Law, the price of land use fees for resettlement allocation is based on the land price list. This leads to a difference in benefits between households that have been compensated, supported, and resettled and households that have not been compensated, thereby leading to disagreement among households, making the site clearance process difficult...

Many localities are making efforts to speed up the disbursement of public investment projects. Ho Chi Minh City is a typical example. Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc has just assigned targets and tasks to departments, branches, localities, and investors to ensure the disbursement of 30% or more of public investment capital by the end of the second quarter of 2025. The "slow" disbursement rate since the beginning of the year has made Mr. Duoc worried, because this not only affects the GRDP growth rate, but is also related to the "promise" that the City has repeatedly affirmed to the Government.

Not to mention, the report of the Ministry of Finance also said that the difficulties related to the disbursement of public investment capital are also related to the lack of raw materials such as soil and rock; difficulties in unit prices and norms; difficulties in planning; difficulties due to the merger and rearrangement of administrative units...

Up to 12 localities reported that some projects were delayed due to overlapping and planning problems, and had to wait for planning adjustments to ensure consistency. Some projects even encountered problems due to overlapping planning boundaries. For example, two key expressway projects in Lam Dong province overlapped with bauxite planning, and some projects in Ninh Thuan overlapped with nuclear power plant planning...

That is, there are "hundreds of tangled threads" that need to be untangled. Not to mention, the disbursement of public investment capital has not met expectations, as Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang has repeatedly emphasized, due to the implementation organization. That is the reason why, with the same institutional and policy framework, some localities, ministries and branches disburse quickly, but some ministries, branches and localities disburse slowly. Therefore, whether 100% of the plan can be disbursed in 2025 or not depends largely on the efforts of ministries, branches, localities, as well as contractors...

“We cannot let small items affect the entire large project,” Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha instructed while inspecting the Long Thanh International Airport Project. The Deputy Prime Minister also directed ministries, branches, localities, and contractors to continue to coordinate and maintain the highest sense of responsibility in order to complete the Long Thanh International Airport project on schedule, ensuring quality and absolute safety when put into operation.

Similarly, with other key projects, the directive was given to focus on accelerating the construction progress. This is the key point to completing the projects.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/thao-go-vuong-mac-tang-toc-giai-ngan-dau-tu-cong-d306618.html