PM urges faster public investment disbursement

At the working session, the prime minister emphasised that the government and agencies should remove barriers to facilitate public investment disbursement and contribute to economic growth.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, just over 32% of around 11.3 billion US dollar in public investments approved as of mid-May by the prime minister has been disbursed. Meanwhile, many national key targets including poverty reduction and constructing new rural areas have yet to be disbursed due to a lack of management regulations. Local authorities spent large amounts of time on the general election and improving local administrative capacity is also considered as one of the reasons for sluggish public investment disbursement. However, according the Ministry of Finance, a major obstacle has been delays by some agencies in transferring funds. Complex investment disbursement procedures are also seen as an obstacle. The prime minister stressed that agencies should quickly clear obstacles as slow disbursement would negatively affect economic growth. To deal with the situation, the prime minister urged officials to be more dynamic and aware of their responsibilities.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc: "The government and ministries must decide to complete disbursement as scheduled. The complex procedures should be amended, especially procedures related to basic infrastructure construction. Co-operation among ministries must be improved as well. The operating mechanism on investment disbursement should be quickly completed".   

Prime Minister Phúc also asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Government Office to immediately draft a resolution with specific measures to accelerate public investment disbursement and collect the opinions of government ministers within a week. Moreover, ministries need to propose plans to the prime minister to amend circulars and relevant decrees. Prime Minister Phúc also assigned Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ to chair a weekly meeting with a special working group on public investment disbursement to resolve problems related to public investment disbursement.