National Assembly delegates said that instead of spending the remaining 1 quadrillion VND to support workers, this capital should be put into projects to create economic momentum.
The national budget is currently over 1 quadrillion VND, as of May 2023. Discussing on May 31, Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Head of the HCM City Enterprise Management Innovation Board, proposed "flexible arrangements and immediate support for workers and unemployed people; or building rental housing in export processing zones, industrial parks and training and career change for workers". Mr. Tuan believes that this solution will immediately stimulate the economy.
Debate at the discussion session this morning, Mr. Ha Sy Dong, Vice Chairman of Quang Tri Provincial People's Committee, shared Mr. Tuan's impatience and agreed to be flexible with the capital resources currently in this budget.
However, Mr. Dong said that flexibility is in coordinating monetary and fiscal policies and removing administrative procedures to put money in the right place, that is, in important projects, creating momentum for the economy. "If projects that have been and are being prepared for investment, need this source of capital but do not have it, then one waste will sometimes give birth to another waste," he said.
Mr. Ha Sy Dong, Vice Chairman of Quang Tri Provincial People's Committee. Photo: Hoang Phong
The current mechanism allows the State Treasury to optimize temporarily idle capital, but Mr. Ha Sy Dong raised the issue of poor coordination between fiscal and monetary policies in implementing the current priority of reducing lending interest rates in the economy.
"Does the determination of the bidding price and the expected amount of money to be bid take into account the operational targets on banking system liquidity, as well as the capital price level in the money market that the State Bank is pursuing?", the Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Tri province raised the issue, and requested that members of the Government have a satisfactory answer to solve difficulties for the economy.
Explaining the remaining budget amount, Finance Minister Ho Duc Phoc said that the agency is depositing VND895,000 billion with an interest rate of 0.8% per year at the State Bank and VND130,000 billion in short-term deposits at commercial banks. He said that this is a temporary idle source, included in the budget approved by the National Assembly for public investment projects and national target programs.
"This amount of money has detailed plans for projects. The remaining amount is due to not being used or fully disbursed, not being saved for spending or allocated for other purposes," said Mr. Phoc.
Speaking on the sidelines of the National Assembly on May 26, Mr. Tran Van Lam, a standing member of the Finance and Budget Committee, said that the backlog of more than one million billion VND in the budget is a waste, and the slow release causes the economy to lose momentum. However, he noted that, despite being impatient, money should not be "pushed out" at all costs, but should be done step by step, strictly and effectively.
"If spending money causes greater loss and waste, it will be even more painful. We cannot rush into coming up with extreme solutions. Instead, we need to be careful to avoid loss and waste," he analyzed.
Public investment - which is considered the driving force for private investment development - is currently disbursed very low. According to the Ministry of Finance's report, the disbursement rate of public investment capital in the first 4 months reached nearly 14.7% of the yearly plan. This level only reached nearly 15.7% of the Prime Minister's plan and was lower than the same period in 2022 (18.48%). According to the Law on Public Investment, there are new projects that are allocated money, but the "stuck" project preparation stage will lead to the next stages, such as capital disbursement not being implemented.
Minister Ho Duc Phoc said that the law must be amended, one law can be used to amend many laws, including amending the Law on Public Investment to overcome this situation.
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