HCMC asked to explain for low disbursement of public investment capital

Amongst localities with the lowest disbursement of public investment capital, Ho Chi Minh City was asked to explain why the southern city has not achieved the plan at a nationwide conference on disbursement of public investment capital chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh this morning.

 

HCMC asked to explain for low disbursement of public investment capital ảnh 1 At the meeting (Photo: SGGP)
This morning, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a nationwide online conference on the acceleration of the disbursement of public investment capital and the implementation of three national target programs.
Speaking at the conference, Mr. Phan Van Mai, Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, informed that as of September 23, the southern metropolis had disbursed VND 10,877 billion, and HCMC has disbursed 25 percent of a total of VND 37,997 billion.
Capital from the central budget was only disbursed VND91 billion, reaching 3.6 percent. The investment cost of some large projects such as Tham Luong - Ben Cat, Highway 50, and An Phu is nearly VND1,700 billion, Ho Chi Minh City will try to complete disbursement by the end of the year. The remaining two projects with foreign loans are the Ho Chi Minh City environmental sanitation project phase 2 and the green traffic project, which may not be fully disbursed according to the annual plan.
Regarding the disbursement rate, Mr. Phan Van Mai explained that the National Assembly and the Prime Minister initially assigned Ho Chi Minh City to disburse public investment of nearly VND52,000 billion, then allocated an additional som of more than VND2,000 billion.
However, Ho Chi Minh City is a budget regulator, with a rate of 21 percent, it ensures regular spending first, and the rest is arranged for development investment. Chairman Phan Van Mai informed that till now, Ho Chi Minh City has rebalanced its revenue and can only ensure the balance of investment and development expenditures of VND 42,508 billion.
HCMC asked to explain for low disbursement of public investment capital ảnh 2 Mr. Mai explains why HCMC has low disbursement of public investment capital (Photo: SGGP)
Regarding the reason for the slow disbursement of public investment capital, he acknowledged like other localities in the country with slow disbursement rates, HCMC has been sluggish in disbursing public investment capital partly related to the capacity and responsibility of project investors.
Previously, projects separated the site clearance from construction and installation, later the two were becoming one in a project; thus, it took a lot of time to adjust it whereas the adjusted projects have not been completed, and the first months of the year have not been disbursed.
To solve this problem, the southern metropolis has set up specialized working groups who will review each project with each investor; hence, many have been removed so far. Amongst them, many projects will be disbursed until November-December, although they are currently disbursing at zero.
Another reason, according to Mr. Phan Van Mai, site clearance is always a difficult issue, Ho Chi Minh City is focusing very aggressively. Recently, there are projects that have existed for decades, which have completed site clearance and restarted.
Mr. Phan Van Mai informed that Ho Chi Minh City also set up a team specializing in site clearance to focus on areas with large and complex site clearance. It is expected that by October, Ho Chi Minh City can basically remove obstacles in terms of site clearance for the continued implementation of projects.
Mr. Phan Van Mai said that in the past time, prices, construction materials, and labor also affected the construction work progress. HCMC leaders had to meet each contractor in each project to convince them to continue the project by helping them to remove bottlenecks; thankfully, many investors continued the implementation of their projects.
In the coming time, Ho Chi Minh City will focus on increasing the responsibility of each investor in each project. Working groups, with large capital groups, ODA teams, and site clearance teams, will review to remove and meet periodically. Regarding the issue of adjusting public investment capital, it is expected that in early October, the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City will hold a special meeting to adjust.
Proposing to the Prime Minister, Mr. Phan Van Mai emphasized that there should be an agreement on the total planned capital in 2022. Ho Chi Minh City proposed that the total capital disbursed for public investment in 2022 will be VND37,997 billion. This figure is lower than the VND 54,000 billion assigned by the Central Government to Ho Chi Minh City, because this year, the city can only balance VND 42,508 billion to spend on development investment.
Additionally, Ho Chi Minh City proposed to further reduce an amount of VND 4,478 billion in budget overspending so that the total disbursement of public investment in 2022 to VND37,997 billion.
Managing the comments section of localities and ministries, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai said that the total disbursement plan for public investment this year of the country is more than VND 542,000 billion, of which Ho Chi Minh City has been allocated over VND54,000 billion. Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai emphasized that Ho Chi Minh City's disbursement accounts for a very large proportion. As a result, Ho Chi Minh City was asked to continue to promote and remove difficulties to promote disbursement to contribute to the completion of the country’s overall plan.

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