Prime Ministers orders faster public investment disbursement

The Government will host a national teleconference scheduled for July 17 with ministries, agencies, economic groups and state-owned enterprises to assess the implementation of the public investment plan for the first six months and seek solutions to spur the disbursement rate in the second half.

Ministries, agencies, economic groups and state-owned enterprises are required to craft reports evaluating the disbursement performance in the first half, including achieved results, limitations, causes, lessons learned, and tasks and solutions to enhance the work in the latter half of 2024. These reports must be sent to the Ministry of Planning and Investment by July 12.

The Government chief assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to compose a new decision to replace Decision 235/QD-TTg, dated March 14, 2023. Accordingly, a new working group led by Deputy Prime Minister Le Thanh Long will be set up before July 12, 2024, raising the total number to six. These working groups are in charge of extricating difficulties and speeding up public investment progress in the rest of the year.

The disbursement of public investment from the State budget in January-May was estimated to reach VND190.6 trillion (US$7.44 billion), equivalent to 26.6 percent of this year's target and 5 percent higher than the same period last year.

Of the sum, investment managed by the government was estimated at VND32.5 trillion, equivalent to 29.3 percent of the yearly plan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.6 percent. Some ministries reported disbursement rates lower than those recorded last year, namely the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (down 34.8 percent), the Ministry of Transport (down 19.1 percent), the Ministry of Health (down 1.5 percent) and the Ministry of Education and Training (down 1.1 percent).

Meanwhile, the disbursed volume of investment capital managed by localities was estimated at VND158.1 trillion, equal to 26.1 percent of the yearly plan and up 6.7 percent over the same period last year.

In May alone, VND48.2 trillion in public investment capital from the State budget was disbursed, a year-on-year increase of 3.1 percent.

By the end of May, ministries, agencies and localities had allocated VND634.6 trillion for projects, reaching 95.6 percent of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister./.