By the end of October 2023, the total disbursed capital was reported at over 6.64 trillion VND, reaching 48.1% of the plan set by the Provincial People’s Council and lower than that of the same period in 2022 (53%).
Some agencies and localities posted promising disbursement rates higher than the provincial average, such as the Department of Construction (99.1%), the Provincial Border Guard Command (80.7%), the Defence Economic Unit 327 (76%), the Provincial Civil and Industrial Works Investment Project Management Board (66.1%), the Provincial People’s Procuracy (57%), Tien Yen District (71.1%), Co To District (57%), Ha Long City (52.3%) and Dam Ha District (51.4%).
Some investors and units reported low disbursement rates, including the Project Management Board for construction of traffic works (32.1%), the Project Management Board for investment in the construction of agricultural and rural development projects (20.7%), the Provincial Police (10.3%), the Provincial Economic Zone Management Board (0%) and Ha Long University (0%).
According to Nguyen Manh Cuong, director of the Provincial Department of Planning and Investment, only six out of ten new projects at the provincial level have started construction. Two new projects with a total investment of over 970 billion VND have yet to commence construction. In addition, eight out of 26 projects at the district level have not yet begun construction, including six school construction projects, with a total capital of 422.5 billion VND.
The reasons for the slow disbursement of public investment in 2023 were prolonged licensing procedures for land mines, delays in land allocation for public investment projects, inadequacies in auctioning land use rights and bidding to select investors for real estate projects, obstructions in the implementation of bidding packages for specialised equipment procurement, and others.
The Provincial People’s Committee has requested relevant agencies and investors to strictly implement the direction of the Provincial People’s Committee, stipulated in Document No. 984/UBND-TH4 dated April 28, 2023, to reach the target of public investment disbursement for the entire 2023.
In particular, the Provincial People’s Committee urged investors to start construction of new projects in November 2023, which were allocated capital, including three key projects, with funds allocated from the provincial budget of over 2.33 trillion VND and five school projects with supplemented capital of 385.5 billion VND.
The eight localities given the right to proactively use public investment capital must review the progress of projects and transfer capital from those with slow disbursement to projects with higher disbursement rates.
Under the direction of the Provincial People’s Committee, investors and People’s Committees of localities are focusing on directing and urging contractors to take advantage of favourable weather to accelerate the settlement of work on the construction sites and to ensure the progress of public projects.
