Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Public investment is currently still an important growth driver, which needs to be accelerated so as to help the economy achieve a 6.5% growth this year, according to insiders.

In mid-March, the Prime Minister issued an official dispatch requesting ministries, sectors, and localities to urgently have specific allocations of the 2024 state budget plan in accordance with regulations.

Data compiled by the Ministry of Planning and Investment showed that as of late March, around 32 trillion VND (1.28 billion USD) out of a total of nearly 657.3 trillion VND planned for 2024 had not been allocated in detail yet. Of this, the central budget is 9.5 trillion VND of 21 out of the 44 ministries and ministry-level agencies and 24 out of the 63 provinces and cities.

Last year, extra efforts were made to disburse public investment, but the disbursement still did not reach the set target of 95%. This year, the 95% threshold continues to be set. To achieve this goal, right from the beginning of this year, the Government and the Prime Minister urged "spending money" and the Government leader has issued official dispatches ordering the acceleration of the disbursement. Recently, a meeting to remove difficulties and speed up the disbursement of official development assistance (ODA) and concessional loans was also held.

Thanks to these efforts, in the first quarter of this year, 89.8 trillion VND worth of public investment was disbursed, equal to 13.67% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister, higher than the 10.35% recorded in the same period last year.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung urged ministries, sectors, and localities to promote the allocation and disbursement of public investment, taking this as a key political task to promote economic growth.

More efforts should be made to promptly handle difficulties and problems in the supply of sand and stone to speed up the progress of key and important national projects, Dung stressed./.