Disbursement of public investment capital in the first 9 months of 2023 reached 51.38% of the plan

On the afternoon of October 23, continuing the sixth session, the National Assembly listened to Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung present the Mid-term Assessment Report on the implementation of the Medium-term Public Investment Plan for the 2021-2025 period.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai chaired the meeting on the afternoon of October 23.

Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said that regarding the allocation and disbursement of capital plans, implementing Resolution No. 29/2021/QH15 of the National Assembly, based on a total capital of VND 2.87 million billion, the Government has assigned the medium-term capital investment plan to ministries, central and local agencies, reaching about 90% of the total capital allocated by the National Assembly (VND 2.72 million billion). The remaining capital is more than VND 190,049 billion, of which the central budget capital is nearly VND 53,750 billion transferred to the reserve of the medium-term public investment plan and the National Assembly allows the Government to continue directing ministries, central and local agencies to complete procedures and approve investment policies; local budget capital is VND 137,000 billion.

The total annual public investment plan (from 2021 to 2023) approved by the National Assembly is expected to reach 59% of the total medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period. However, the central budget capital reaches 52.2% of the medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period, creating great pressure on the budget balance in 2024 and 2025. The proportion of development investment expenditure in the total budget expenditure for the 3 years of 2021-2023 accounts for 28.4%; the proportion of public investment capital in the total average social investment capital for the 2 years of 2021-2022 is 16.4%.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung presented the report.

According to Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, in recent times, public investment has played a leading role, acting as a seed capital to attract investment resources from non-state economic sectors, creating momentum for economic growth. The average disbursement rate of public investment capital in the two years 2021-2022 reached 93.56% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister and in the first 9 months of 2023, disbursement reached 51.38% of the plan, higher than the same period in 2022 (46.7%), in absolute terms, it was 110 trillion VND higher.

According to the Minister of Planning and Investment, because the capital plan for the following year is basically the same as the previous year, it has led to the possibility of not allocating enough central budget capital according to the medium-term plan. With the expected 2024 plan of 225 trillion VND, the cumulative arrangement for the 4 years from 2021 to 2024 reaches 61.7% of the total central budget capital investment plan approved by the National Assembly for allocation. Thus, it is expected that about 376 projects of the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2021-2025 that have been allocated annual capital will be transferred to implementation and completion in the period 2026-2030.

National Assembly deputies attend the afternoon session on October 23.

Reviewing the mid-term assessment of the implementation of the Medium-term Public Investment Plan for the 2021-2025 period, Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh said that after 3 years of implementing the Medium-term Public Investment Plan, the Government, together with ministries, branches and localities, have urgently and seriously implemented the tasks and goals set out in Resolution 29, achieving many positive results.

The medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period was approved by the National Assembly in July 2021, nearly a year earlier than the 2016-2020 period, creating initiative for ministries, branches and localities to implement it early from the beginning of the term, contributing to the synchronous implementation of the economic restructuring plan and the 5-year socio-economic development plan for 2021-2025, promoting the economy to overcome difficulties, recover and continue to develop.

Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh presented the audit report.

Along with that, the public investment institution continues to be improved. In the process of directing and operating, the Government has implemented many drastic solutions to promote the annual disbursement of public investment capital, contributing to promoting growth and economic recovery.

Regarding the expected implementation of the remaining 2 years of the Medium-Term Public Investment Plan for the period 2021-2025, the majority of opinions of the Finance and Budget Committee believe that, with the current reality of central budget capital allocation, the allocation and assignment of medium-term and annual capital plans are slow, the balance of resources for public investment expenditures does not meet the plan, and the requirement for balancing capital sources in the remaining 2 years is quite large. In addition, the capital allocated for projects under the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program has been disbursed very low, creating great pressure on resource allocation and organization of capital disbursement.

Therefore, the ability to balance enough central budget capital is extremely difficult to implement more effectively in the remaining 2 years of the Plan, while the leading role of the central budget is not guaranteed, and revenue from equitization and divestment of state capital is expected to suffer a large shortfall.

"The Committee recommends that the Government carefully assess the actual capital balance capacity and the disbursement of allocated capital over the past three years, focusing on allocating and adjusting capital for projects with disbursement capacity to speed up progress and improve the efficiency of public investment capital use," Mr. Le Quang Manh reported.

Source