In the afternoon of 3.4, the Ministry of Finance held a regular press conference in the first quarter of 2025. Information about the disbursement progress of public investment after the question of the Lao Dong Newspaper reporter, the representative of the Investment Department (Ministry of Finance) said that by the end of the first quarter of 2025, the rate of disbursement of public investment capital reached 9.53% of the annual plan.
There are three main reasons for the slow disbursement. First of all, there are limitations and shortcomings in mechanisms and policies - especially inappropriate regulations in the Law on Public Investment and the Law on State Budget. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is urgently reviewing and submitting to competent authorities to remove difficulties, simplify procedures, and facilitate practical implementation.
The second reason comes from problems in the implementation process. During the process of restructuring the apparatus and reviewing, there are projects that, although the preparation steps have been completed, inspections have found them to be no longer effective, forcing them to stop implementation - this also affects the disbursement results.
The third reason is that some localities have not yet allocated budget revenue. This directly affects the progress of projects using public investment capital, while in 2025, it is required to promote public investment to support economic growth.
In order to remove difficulties, the Prime Minister has established 7 Working Groups led by 7 Deputy Prime Ministers, with the task of directly working with localities, ministries and branches to resolve arising problems. The Ministry of Finance will also summarize the difficulties and fully report to the working groups in the coming time.
Clarifying this issue, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi emphasized that if we want to further speed up the disbursement progress, we need to continue a comprehensive review from the Law on Public Investment, the Law on State Budget to the payment mechanism, to ensure openness.
In addition, it is necessary to strengthen decentralization and delegation of authority to all levels, along with a strict inspection and supervision mechanism. During the process of restructuring the apparatus, there are projects that, although the preparation steps have been completed, when reviewed, are found to be no longer effective, forced to stop implementation - this also affects the disbursement results. The Government has always paid special attention to this issue and is resolutely removing difficulties, because public investment is still one of the key pillars to promote economic growth in 2025.
Previously, at the meeting of the Steering Committee on reviewing and removing difficulties and obstacles related to projects, the Ministry of Finance said that as of March 25, 2025, according to the summary from ministries, branches and localities with reports, there are 1,533 projects (including 338 public investment projects, 1,126 non-budget investment projects and 69 investment projects under the public-private partnership - PPP method) facing difficulties and obstacles.
