Mr. Tran Manh Ha, Director of Expenditure Control Department (State Treasury)

Right from the beginning of the year, the Prime Minister requested the highest determination in disbursing public investment capital. But sir, the results achieved have not been as expected?

The Government and the Prime Minister pay great attention to the disbursement of public investment capital, requiring construction units to "overcome the sun and rain", "eat quickly, sleep urgently", "only discuss work, not retreat"... This requirement was reiterated by the Prime Minister at the National Online Conference of the Government Standing Committee on promoting public investment in 2024, held on July 16, 2024.

The determination is great, but the results achieved are still low. According to newly released data from the Ministry of Finance, the estimated payment of public investment capital from the beginning of the year to July 31, 2024 is about VND 232,091 billion, which is only 32.22% of the total plan, equivalent to 34.68% of the capital plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

Perhaps the urge was not strong enough, sir?

I don't think so, because right from the end of the first quarter, the Prime Minister issued a telegram on promoting the allocation and disbursement of public investment capital in 2024, emphasizing raising awareness at all levels and sectors about the role and significance of public investment for socio-economic development; identifying public investment disbursement as one of the top important political tasks, which needs to be focused on, prioritized in leadership, direction and implementation.

In the telegram, the Prime Minister requested to urgently allocate detailed plans for state budget capital investment in 2024 in accordance with regulations, without delay; the detailed allocation of capital plans must ensure focus and key points, not spread out.

To avoid the situation of being "slow" at the beginning of the year and "rushing" at the end of the year, the Government regularly requires ministries, branches, localities, and investors to make detailed disbursement plans for each project and strictly adhere to the disbursement plans for each month and quarter.

In public investment activities, if one step or stage is stuck or blocked, all the following stages will be suspended, especially site clearance - the most important stage. Therefore, not only this year, but in recent years, the Government has always requested to focus on speeding up site clearance and construction progress, and removing difficulties and obstacles related to land and resources...

Investors must strengthen on-site inspection and supervision, urge contractors to speed up progress; assign specific leaders responsible for monitoring implementation progress; consider public investment disbursement results as an important basis when evaluating and classifying the level of completion of assigned tasks annually by heads of relevant agencies, units and individuals.

So what difficulties prevent public investment activities from changing strongly?

As I said, public investment is a process with many stages, if one stage is interrupted, the rest of the process will be suspended. Therefore, the Prime Minister has requested leaders of ministries, branches and localities to really pay attention to promoting progress, completely removing difficulties in supplying construction materials, speeding up investment preparation, investment decisions, and selecting contractors for key national projects and works, and construction investment projects in the area.

Faced with difficulties and obstacles in disbursement, at the end of April 2024, the Prime Minister issued Directive 12/CT-TTg on tasks and solutions to promote socio-economic development, emphasizing public investment activities. Public investment is considered one of the three pillars of economic growth, so the Prime Minister instructed ministries, branches and localities to be more drastic in site clearance and speed up the construction progress of key projects and works.

After this directive, the disbursement progress was more positive, each month was higher than the previous month because ministries, branches and localities strengthened discipline and order in disbursing public investment capital, had strict sanctions according to regulations for organizations and individuals who intentionally delayed the progress of capital allocation, implementation and disbursement of public investment capital; promptly replaced cadres, civil servants and public employees who were weak in capacity and stagnant; resolutely and strictly handled according to the law negative and corrupt acts in public investment management, especially key national projects.

Directive 12/CT-TTg also requires the Ministry of Finance (specifically the State Treasury) to speed up the payment and settlement process. Disbursement is the final step in the public investment process. Sir, are there any problems with this step?

There is no problem, because the State Treasury has simplified and shortened the time and procedures for disbursing public investment capital by promoting the application of digital transformation and payment via online public services. From the beginning of the year, the State Treasury has directed the entire system to carry out payment control of basic construction investment projects, ensuring compliance with the capital plan assigned by competent authorities every year, complying with the principles of payment control, records and payment control time; at the same time, recording and synthesizing difficulties and problems in disbursing public investment capital to report to competent authorities for consideration and handling.

The State Treasury has issued about 50% of the government bond capital mobilization plan for 2024 (VND 400,000 billion). This is the largest volume of government bond capital ever, with a very low interest rate of only 2.33%/year - much lower than the average mobilization interest rate in 2023 (3.21%/year). The capital is sufficient, payment procedures are convenient, payment documents have been simplified to the minimum level, just waiting for investors and contractors to complete the documents, send them to be disbursed immediately.

Although the results are more positive, the reality is that the disbursement of public investment capital is still stuck. What do you think is the reason?

In addition to the inherent and very difficult problem of land clearance, there have been some problems in the mechanisms and policies.

Disbursement of public investment capital requires not only political determination, but also the removal of obstacles arising during the implementation process, removing obstacles as they arise, and removing obstacles as they arise. In this view, the Government has directed ministries and branches to review regulations to propose amendments to facilitate disbursement.