Clarifying the causes and responsibilities for the slow progress of key projects

Discussing at the hall this afternoon, delegate Nguyen Lam Thanh (Thai Nguyen) basically agreed with the report of the Supervisory Delegation and the delegates' opinions on the results of the thematic supervision of "the implementation of Resolution No. 43/2022/QH15 dated January 11, 2022 of the National Assembly on fiscal and monetary policies to support the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program and the National Assembly's resolutions on a number of important national projects until the end of 2023". The delegate said that this is a very correct Resolution of the National Assembly set out in the requirements for socio-economic recovery and development after the Covid-19 pandemic with many contents that are focused and key to solving the problems that society and the economy need.

Delegate Nguyen Lam Thanh (Thai Nguyen)

Delegate Nguyen Lam Thanh also agreed with the delegates that there should be regulations on special mechanisms and special policies to solve special problems in special situations.

Regarding the highway projects, delegate Nguyen Lam Thanh suggested that there should be additional studies and reports as recommended by the Supervisory Delegation. At the same time, it is necessary to clarify the causes and indicate the responsibilities of agencies in the implementation of some important national projects.

Delegate Nguyen Van Than (Thai Binh) also agreed with the assessment of the Thematic Monitoring Team and emphasized: The State Bank of Vietnam has reduced interest rates up to 4 times, extended debt repayments, and removed difficulties for businesses. This is an effort of the banking industry that needs to be recognized.

Regarding the implementation of the 2% interest rate support policy through the commercial banking system, delegate Vu Tuan Anh (Phu Tho) said that this is a very important solution to reduce costs, directly support production and business, and make an important contribution to the recovery and development of the socio-economy. However, the implementation results from the beginning of the program to the end of 2023 have only achieved about 3.05% of the policy scale. It can be seen that this policy has hardly come into life, affecting the implementation of the goals of the proposed socio-economic recovery and development program.

Delegate Vu Tuan Anh (Phu Tho)

In addition to the reasons why this policy has not been implemented as stated by the Supervisory Delegation, reality shows that the principles for implementing the policy under Decree 31 of the Government are not suitable and not clear. The instructions of the competent authorities are also not complete and clear, so many enterprises, cooperatives, and business households are facing difficulties and need support, but the conditions for receiving 2% interest rate support are very strict. In addition, many enterprises are afraid of inspection, examination, and audit as stated by the Supervisory Delegation, so when receiving support from the state budget, although they meet the conditions, they do not request interest rate support. Therefore, the delegates suggested that the Government should assess the reasons more carefully to draw lessons when introducing similar policies in the next phase.

Regarding the policy of infrastructure development investment, implementing the resolution of the National Assembly, the Government has submitted to the National Assembly Standing Committee 5 times the list of capital levels, with the maximum level according to the resolution of the National Assembly. However, the capital allocation of the program is still slow, the disbursement results of new projects only reached 61% (by the end of January 2024) compared to the total allocated central budget capital.

According to the delegate, the slow disbursement of capital has led to the slow implementation of important projects, slowing down the promotion of socio-economic efficiency. In addition to the reasons mentioned by the Supervisory Delegation, the main reason is that right from the stage of selecting projects to be included in the program, the requirement of disbursement in 2022 and 2023 has not been met; most of the projects included in the program are newly started projects, so it takes more time for investment preparation, leading to slow capital allocation and project implementation compared to requirements.

Overview of the meeting

The delegate suggested that it is necessary to clarify the responsibilities of organizations and individuals for this situation to occur. To avoid waste and ensure the implementation of the National Assembly's resolutions, the delegate suggested adding two contents to the draft resolution: First, in case the project has not yet started or has not yet disbursed, it should be temporarily suspended. Second, in case there is a project that must be disbursed in 2025, the capital transferred to be disbursed in 2025 should be deducted accordingly from the medium-term public investment plan for the period 2026-2030 to ensure fairness among localities.

Delegate Duong Van Phuoc (Quang Nam) proposed to find solutions to remove legal obstacles to unblock investment resources and business production. According to the delegate, the fiscal policy is mostly investment projects under the Economic Recovery and Development Program that have complied with the principles and criteria of Resolution 43/2022/QH15 of the National Assembly. However, as a Group B project, it is usually implemented within 4 years, but urgent projects and programs must be implemented within 2 years (2022, 2023) and are not allowed to appoint contractors according to Clause 1, Article 5 of Resolution 43, but still have to organize contractor selection through online bidding. Other steps also follow the normal project implementation process, so the organization and implementation process encounters many difficulties, slowing down the progress of project implementation.

According to delegate Duong Van Phuoc, the public investment and development investment policy has only disbursed 65.3% of the plan, and the disbursement progress of many projects has not met requirements. In addition to objective reasons, there is also the responsibility of a number of central ministries, branches as well as a number of localities for lacking determination. The delegate suggested that the National Assembly should consider issuing policy mechanisms to continue supporting and restoring economic and social development as well as solutions to remove legal obstacles and barriers to unblock investment resources, production and business.

The Government needs to flexibly manage fiscal and monetary policies and continue to synchronously implement solutions to remove difficulties for the financial and monetary markets, the corporate bond market, and the real estate market.

Source: https://thoibaonganhang.vn/lam-ro-nguyen-nhan-trach-nhiem-ve-viec-du-an-trong-diem-cham-tien-do-152010.html