The Law on Public Investment (amended) focuses on 5 groups of fields.

On September 13, the Ministry of Planning and Investment held a workshop to collect opinions from development partners on the draft Law on Public Investment (amended). The workshop was attended by many development partners such as: World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Monetary Fund (IMF)...

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong chaired a workshop to collect opinions from development partners on the draft Law on Public Investment (amended). (Photo: Thuc Anh/MPI)

Chairing the meeting, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said that the Ministry has reviewed and reported to competent authorities to amend public investment laws and regulations in the direction of simplifying procedures, including 29 new policies, focusing on 5 groups of fields.

One of the five revised policy groups is to promote the implementation and disbursement of Official Development Assistance (ODA) capital plans and preferential loans from foreign donors, by designing a separate chapter.

Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong assessed: "This amendment to the Law on Public Investment is very comprehensive, while the progress is urgent, expected to be passed at the 8th Session of the National Assembly, requiring high quality to fundamentally overcome difficulties, limitations, obstacles, bottlenecks, improve the efficiency of capital use and unlock resources for development".

At the workshop, representatives of development partners highly appreciated the draft of the revised Law on Public Investment, especially the policies on ODA projects.

Mr. Pham Hoang Mai, Director of Foreign Economic Department, Ministry of Planning and Investment said that when designing the ODA chapter, the Drafting Committee prioritized resolving difficulties and obstacles in implementing ODA projects.

The draft decentralizes more authority to the People's Committee and the governing body. These decentralizations are consistent with domestic legal policies. Accordingly, non-refundable aid projects are decentralized to the People's Committee.

Notably, previously, projects were only disbursed and implemented when there was a medium-term plan and an annual public investment plan. Many development partners have commented that the need to supplement the annual plan would affect the implementation progress. Now, the draft Law on Public Investment (amended) allows implementation and then reporting to the competent authority later (post-audit).

Ms. Susan Lim, ADB representative, said that the main goal of the Law on Public Investment (amended) is to make the most effective use of ODA capital.

She highly appreciated the three biggest changes, which are: Simplifying procedures, delegating more power, reducing related time, especially in local governments; to be able to prepare projects with 100% state capital projects...

"For emergency projects, ADB recommends that there should be specific regulations for more effective use, for example projects with natural disasters, storms, floods, and climate change," Ms. Susan Lim emphasized.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/luat-dau-tu-cong-sua-doi-tap-trung-trong-5-nhom-linh-vuc-286191.html