To achieve GDP growth of over 8%, public investment resources allocated in 2025 will amount to nearly VND875,000 billion. When this large resource is disbursed, the pillar of public investment growth will be effective. But the important thing is how to spend all this money.
To achieve GDP growth of over 8%, public investment resources allocated in 2025 will amount to nearly VND875,000 billion. When this large resource is disbursed, the pillar of public investment growth will be effective. But the important thing is how to spend all this money.
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| Chi Lang - Huu Nghi Expressway is one of two projects that the Prime Minister inspected during the Lunar New Year holiday. |
Worry about spending money at the beginning of the year
The Government has submitted to the National Assembly a supplementary project on socio-economic development in 2025, with a growth target of 8% or more. One of the important growth drivers mentioned is that public investment capital in 2025 will be about 36 billion USD (equivalent to 875,000 billion VND, about 84,300 billion VND higher than the assigned plan for 2025).
"The money is there, the address is there, this more than 84,300 billion VND is new compared to the National Assembly's resolution on the 2025 Plan (790,700 billion VND - PV)", Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said so when the National Assembly Standing Committee met on the Project and said that when public investment is about 84,300 billion VND higher, GDP will increase by about 0.64 percentage points.
Public investment has long been considered an important growth driver of the economy. A calculation by the General Statistics Office that has been mentioned for a long time is that every VND of public investment capital will lead to VND 1.61 of non-state investment capital; every 1% increase in public investment capital disbursement compared to the previous year will boost GDP growth by 0.06 percentage points.
Therefore, promoting public investment disbursement in the context of the Government wanting to push economic growth in 2025 to over 8%, aiming for double-digit growth in the coming years, is extremely important.
Examining the Government's report, the National Assembly's Economic Committee said that public investment is one of the pillars for growth, therefore, with such a large amount of allocated capital, there needs to be specific solutions, attaching responsibility for implementation to innovate public investment management.
“The Government needs to ensure the disbursement of the allocated and supplemented public investment capital in the context that public investment disbursement has been a weak link for many years and the specificity of 2025 is that public investment capital is allocated at a high level, many key projects are completed or are preparing for investment,” said Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh.
The challenge of disbursing public investment capital in 2025 is indeed huge, because of the high capital source. In 2024, according to the report of the Ministry of Finance, despite great efforts, by the end of January 31, 2025, the estimated disbursement of public investment capital was nearly VND 635,580 billion, reaching 93.06% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister (the same period in 2023 reached 93.12%), not reaching the disbursement plan of 95%.
Notably, in addition to the disbursement of projects under the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program reaching 97.38%, domestic capital disbursement reaching 94.38%, foreign capital disbursement only reached 49.55% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister; capital under the National Target Program disbursed 85.68% of the plan.
Moreover, while 11 ministries, central agencies and 37 localities have disbursement rates above the national average (over 93.06% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister), there are still 35 ministries, central agencies and 26 localities with disbursement rates in 2024 below the national average (93.06%).
That is, although public investment disbursement has improved, it has not yet met expectations. We need to make more efforts to "spend money", especially when compared to last year, this year's public investment resources are 200,000 billion VND higher.
Boosting growth pillars
Information shows that efforts to disburse public investment capital have been promoted since the beginning of the year. By the end of January 2025, the Prime Minister had assigned nearly VND 830,000 billion of the state budget investment plan to ministries, branches and localities. However, only over VND 741,000 billion has been allocated in detail by ministries, branches and localities, while over VND 84,840 billion has not been allocated.
“Many newly-started projects have not completed investment procedures, so they are not eligible for capital planning; some projects are waiting for adjustments to the 2021-2025 medium-term public investment plan…”, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong explained why there is still a large source of capital that has not been allocated in detail.
In terms of public investment disbursement, Ho Chi Minh City is most concerned because of its large investment resources. "Ho Chi Minh City will focus on public investment disbursement, striving to reach 95% by the end of January 2026," said Mr. Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. 
Not to mention, there is a situation where some ministries and central agencies have requested to return capital (including domestic and foreign capital) because they do not need to use it. Meanwhile, some new projects using ODA capital have not yet signed foreign loan agreements...
Capital allocation is the same, but public investment disbursement in January 2025 has not improved much. It is estimated that by the end of the month, public investment disbursement will be more than VND 10,382 billion, reaching 1.26% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister, lower than the figure of 2.58% in the same period in 2024.
“In January 2025, ministries, branches and localities are focusing on implementing detailed capital allocation plans for projects and completing investment procedures to disburse capital plans, so the disbursement rate is low,” Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong explained.
However, time will not wait. When public investment resources are expected to increase to VND875,000 billion, there is no other way but to urgently implement and disburse, right from the first months of the year.
To promote disbursement, during the Lunar New Year holiday, the Prime Minister inspected the construction sites of the Chi Lang - Huu Nghi (Lang Son) and Dong Dang (Lang Son) - Tra Linh (Cao Bang) expressway projects and directed to continue to resolve difficulties and obstacles, and to resolve proposals and recommendations to promote these two expressway projects. Previously, the Prime Minister also visited the construction sites of the Long Thanh International Airport projects; Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3, Terminal T3 (Tan Son Nhat International Airport, Ho Chi Minh City) to urge progress...
The head of the Government has directed units to make efforts to accelerate, break through, and carry out construction in "3 shifts, 4 shifts", "overcome the sun, overcome the rain, and not lose to the storm", "only discuss work, not discuss retreat", all for the development of the country...
Promoting public investment disbursement, especially for key projects, is a way to create momentum for short-term economic growth, while opening up new development space for regions and localities. Therefore, the Ministry of Planning and Investment believes that ministries, branches and localities need to drastically implement solutions to promote public investment disbursement from the beginning of the year, and quickly bring capital into the economy.
Once again, the target of disbursing 95% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister has been set for 2025 - the final year of the 2021-2025 medium-term public investment period. Ministries, branches and localities are making efforts to achieve this target.
For example, building a GRDP growth scenario in 2025 at 12%, Hai Duong province has made great efforts to disburse public investment capital right from the beginning of the year. The public investment disbursement scenario has been outlined, with the target of reaching about 3% in January; 8% in February and 19% in March, avoiding the situation of "leisurely at the beginning of the year, struggling at the end of the year", striving to achieve 99.7% of the assigned plan for the whole year.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/thuc-tru-cot-tang-truong-dau-tu-cong-d246163.html
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