When the Covid-19 pandemic started, the disbursement of public investment capital became the motivation of growth. Over time, the efforts of the whole political system, the disbursement rate of public investment capital; although there are still many problems to discuss, it has gradually beenrestored and brought positive results.

To improve the investment capital disbursement rate, the determination
of the units directly implementing the implementation
is extremely important. Photo: Internet

Many good methods

According to the report from the Ministry of Finance, the accumulated investment capital payments by the end of November 2020 were about VND336,012 billion, reaching 62.87% of the plan and 71.22% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

According to statistics, 15 ministries, central agencies and 18 localities have estimated disbursement rate in 11 months obtaining over 75%. Ofwhich, up to nine ministries, central agencies and seven localities disbursed over 85% including: Cooperative Union (100%), Management Board of Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (95.65%), Ngan Social Policy (95.62%), Vietnam News Agency (94.07%), Vietnam Writers Association (93.59%), Voice of Vietnam (93.15%), Ministry of Internal Affairs Department (90.97%), State Audit (86.96%), Ministry of Construction (85.75%), Hung Yen (95.24%), Nam Dinh (87.73%), Ha Tinh ( 87.66%), Thai Binh (86.28%), Hai Duong (85.35%), and Ben Tre (85.21%).

Among the top agencies with high disbursement amounts, the Ministry of Transport has shown great determination. This ministry ultimately requested the units to speed up the bidding procedures, soon complete payment and settlement documents to ensure 100% disbursement of the plan as required; investors, project management units completed the procedures to disburse in December 2020 for the payment of outstanding debts for capital construction; projects adjusted to increase from extended funding sources (La Son - Tuy Loan and Nha Trang - Cam Lam projects) and advance work on construction contracts of the North - South Expressway projects in the East.

Along with that, theMinistry directed the Department of Construction Management and Traffic Works Quality to organize a team to inspect and supervise the implementation of ongoing projects, promote acceptance and payment procedures; advise the ministry in charge of specific solutions to promote disbursement progress.

Many major projects have been completed on schedule such as LachHuyen port, Tan Vu - LachHuyen motorway, Highway 217, phase 2, Hung Ha bridge, Thinh Long bridge.

In the locality, many good and effective methodsalso appear. For example, Ben Tre (where the investment capital disbursement rate is over 85% of the capital plan) has appropriately exploited budget revenues, saved administrative expenditures to supplement capital for investment and development; mobilized ODA capital sources to start new key infrastructure projects in the fields of transport, irrigation, health and respond to climate change; mobilize funds from NGOs (non-governmental organizations) to invest in projects.

In Hung Yen, when the Covid-19 pandemicwas controlled, the Provincial People's Committee regularly held meetings to review the progress of implementation and disbursement of public investment. In particular, provincial leaders have checked, grasped the situation and directed projects assigned with large capital plans and thosefacing difficulties.

The project owners have also made a lot of effort. The most conspicuous example is the project that is considered to have an “unbelievable” disbursement progress - construction of a road and a Pile Reserve in Cao Quy village, Lien Khe commune, Thuy Nguyen district, Hai Phong.

Mr. Pham Van Hao, Director of the Management Board of Construction and Investment Projects of Thuy Nguyen District inHai Phong, said: “This project has a total investment of more thanVND362 billion and is identified as a key project and project of the city in 2020. Therefore, after more than five months of commencement of construction (from February 3 to October 13, 2020), the project was officially inaugurated and welcomed visitors. In order to achieve that disbursement speed, the investor, the Management Board of Construction Investment Projects of Thuy Nguyen District, focused on preparing documents and papers in accordance with regulations. Then, thanks to the administrative reform of the State Treasury of Hai Phong, the return of documents is clear and transparent, project staff cannot go to the Treasury but can send documents online at the agency, whilethe payment and clearance work took place smoothly.”

There are still shortcomings

Besides many well-implemented units, there are still many other units that are operating sluggishly. The report of the Ministry of Finance indicated that there were 13 ministries, central agencies and five localities with disbursement rates below 50%.

In addition, a number of important national projects and public investment projects will have large capital plans in 2020, but the disbursement rate is still low. A typical example is the project of land acquisition, compensation and resettlement support for Long Thanh International Airport. This project has just disbursed overVND2,190 billion, reaching 12.7% of the capital plan (over VND18,195 billion). The reason is that there are problems in determining the origin of the land, applying the compensation price,or like the Hanoi urban railway project, Ho Chi Minh City has to carry out the procedures to adjust loan agreements with foreign countries.

In the locality, the stormy weather in the Central region continues to seriously affect the construction progress of projects, especially traffic and irrigation projects. This is the reason why the disbursement rate of the whole country slowed down. In addition, some localities have just been assigned additional capital and have not completed the disbursement procedure in time. Some mountainous provinces (such as Lang Son) are facing difficulties in identifying poor households to benefit from funds for ethnic minorities. The reason is that the time to formulate the project is 2017 but until 2020, the capital will be allocated, so the disbursement rate of this capital is low.

Another factorto mention is that the donors are too deeply involved in the implementation of Vietnam's ODA projects (from capital withdrawal procedures, package division, spending control, disbursement), leading to project implementation having tocomply with both Vietnamese and donor processes, thus prolonging the disbursement time.

Some ODA projects in provinces such as Lao Cai, Dien Bien, and KienGiang are still facing difficulties and problems in compensation and site clearance. In addition, in Hung Yen, there are currently two new ODA projects approved by the Government to adjust investment policies, awaiting the adjustment of the loan agreement, so the disbursement progress is still low.

Although there are still many unresolved issues, it must be admitted that the disbursement of overall investment capital has partly saved economic growth, becoming a bright spot in the economic picture of the whole area as well as the world.

At this point, many other jobs related to this task still need to be implemented such as transferring capital from places that cannot be disbursed to important and urgent projects that need to speed up the progress and be able to solve the problem.

Emergency projects such as responding to climate change, combating riverbank and coastal landslides, projects overcoming the consequences of natural disasters in some localities under the direction of the Prime Minister. In particular, drastically continue to implement Resolution No. 84 / NQ-CP on tasks and solutions to further remove difficulties for production and business, promote disbursement of public investment capital and ensure social orderin the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.