Investment minister clears up concerns over public investment

Minister Dung was the last Cabinet member to take the floor at the Q&A session on June 15 at the ongoing third sitting of the 14th National Assembly.

Responding to queries regarding the two-year enforcement of the Public Investment Law, the minister highlighted remarkable outcomes, such as enhanced management of development investment, and transparent and equal allocation of investment capital among localities and sectors.   

Since the number of projects dropped from 15,000-16,000 in 2013 to only 5,000 at present, the capital was allocated more centrally, thus helping accelerate the project progress and create more favourable conditions to lure private and foreign direct investments, he said. 

Dung also pointed out bottlenecks, saying several agencies and units have failed to fully understand objectives and viewpoints of the Public Investment Law and decrees guiding the implementation of the law.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has suggested the Government review the relevant decrees and collected opinions on amendments to the Public Investment Law to submit to the Government in September, he noted. 

Speaking at the session, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue admitted that the disbursement of public investment in 2016 and the first five months of this year remained sluggish. 

This is one of the reasons contributing to the failure to reach the set economic growth target, he said, admitting the Government’s responsibility and pledging that the Government will work harder on the issue. 

Pointing out barriers created by the Public Investment Law and relevant legal documents, Hue said ministries, agencies and localities were slow in detecting and amending unreasonable contents of the documents.  

Besides, the loose coordination between ministries, agencies and localities were also attributed to the sluggish public investment allocations, the Deputy PM said. 

To accelerate the work, the Government and the Prime Minister have regularly reviewed the situation and added an array of guidelines, tasks and solutions in monthly resolutions. 

Of note, the Government issued Resolution No. 60 dated July 8, 2016 on tasks and solutions to speed up the progress and improve the efficiency of public investment capital, he said. 

The Prime Minister also set up a special working group led by a Deputy Prime Minister to supervise the work. 

In a parallel effort, the Government issued a new resolution on accelerating public investment disbursement with many new solutions during the Cabinet meeting in May. 

“The Government will do more in the time ahead,” Deputy PM Hue promised. 

Concluding the hearing session of the Minister of Planning and Investment, NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan asked the minister to pay heed to the allocation and disbursement of mid-term investment, which still remained slow. 

Other problems are the red tape in investment procedures and wastefulness in investment, she said, urging the Government, Minister Dung and other relevant ministers to drastically implement set solutions.