Disbursement for public investment too slow: Vietnam government

By Vuong Duc Anh   June 22, 2016 | 04:50 am PT
Disbursement for public investment too slow: Vietnam government
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has urged government agencies to speed up the disbursement of state budget for public investment projects, Vietnamese government portal reported yesterday.

According to Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), the total budget approved by the National Assembly for 2016 is VND254.9 trillion ($11.5 billion).

Government agencies have so far disbursed over VND83 trillion (3.73 billion USD), equivalent to 33.14 percent of the 2016 budget.

Disbursement of capital raised via government bond sales in this period also remained low compared to the plan, with around VND6.081 trillion ($273.6 million) spent, equivalent to only 15.42 percent of the year's plan.

The Ministry of Transport, the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang and Hanoi were reported to be lagging behind, with disbursement rates of 6.2 percent, four percent and three percent respectively.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said the low disbursement rate in the first five months of the year were due to projects under national target programs not having been officially approved.

Dung attributed the situation to several reasons, including slow submission of budget plans and incomplete government guidelines on project assessment and approval. Difficulties in land clearance, and incompetent contractors were also behind the situation, Dung added.

Meanwhile, leaders of the State Treasury said there is no shortage of money to disburse government bonds. For the new public investment projects, the State Treasury said there have been up to 200 local projects which have been allocated funds. However, many local projects have yet to establish their management boards to come to the State Treasury for transactions and account registration.

Concluding the meeting, Deputy Hue asked the government agencies to find solutions to accelerate budget disbursement, such as by further cutting red tape and simplifying the tender system.

He asked the MPI and Finance Ministry to examine and revise project guidelines and inspect the quality of public investment projects. Hue also requested the MPI to report results to the government at the regular meeting in June, 2016.

 
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