Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Don Special Zone - Mr. Nguyen Sinh Luong - has just signed a decision approving the investment policy of the Cai Rong Coastal Road Project, with a total estimated investment of VND 2,662 billion.
This is considered one of the few leaders of commune-level administrative units in Quang Ninh who approved an investment project with a capital of thousands of billions of VND, while previously, when the district-level government had not been abolished, the commune-level leaders had no authority to do so.
According to the latest regulations on the authority to decide on investment policies, the People's Committee at the commune level has the authority to decide on investment policies for public investment projects in group B and group C using commune-level budget capital, targeted additional capital from the superior budget and other legal capital sources managed by the commune level.
In particular, in Group B, the competent commune-level leaders approved the project investment policy from 240 billion VND to under 4,600 billion VND in the fields of transportation (bridges, seaports, river ports, airports, railways, national highways), electricity industry, oil and gas exploitation, chemicals, fertilizers, cement, machinery making, metal processing, mineral exploitation/processing, housing construction.
For the fields of agricultural, forestry, aquaculture, national parks, nature reserves, technical infrastructure of new urban areas, and industry (except for industrial projects under other items), competent commune leaders approve project investment policies from VND 120 billion to under VND 2,000 billion...
However, the condition here is that the commune level must have sufficient professional capacity to organize implementation. If there is not enough capacity, it must be reported to the Provincial People's Committee for the provincial level to decide or re-allocate.
Another important condition is that the commune level must point out where the capital is; if the commune level has capital and is capable, it can do it itself, otherwise, it can be proposed to the provincial level to support capital or the provincial level to invest immediately.
Currently, in Quang Ninh, many commune-level administrative units can be autonomous in capital sources, especially from land.
Of which, Van Don Special Zone, in the first 6 months of the year, budget revenue reached more than 645 billion VND and is expected to collect thousands of billions of VND from land in the coming time.
According to an officer of a project management board in Quang Ninh, such a strong decentralization will help commune-level authorities be more proactive, but requires the capacity and daring to think and daring to do of the team of leaders and commune-level officials.
Therefore, even commune-level administrative units with large revenues and given by the province are uncertain to dare to approve investment policies and implement investment.
