On the morning of November 18, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Public Debt Management.
National Assembly Delegate (NAD) Nguyen Van Than (Hung Yen Delegation) said that the National Assembly has currently approved a regulation allowing foreign currency loans with an interest rate of 6% or less.
Meanwhile, the domestic capital is mainly foreign currency, gold, and gemstones, in fact having a much higher capital level than foreign currency.
However, due to limited capital mobilization from the people, it has led to people's resources not being included in the economy but instead shifting to hoarding gold, foreign currency or real estate investment.
This causes unusual fluctuations in the gold and real estate markets and is unstable. The delegate suggested that the Government should soon have an assessment and solutions to handle this problem.
Other issues mentioned by delegates are investment by foreign corporations, foreign companies and ODA loans, conditional loans. The delegate suggested that the Government should publicly disclose to the National Assembly how much it borrows, what is the loan plan, how much interest rate, whether it owes due or not, if it owes due, how much is the debt?
Commenting on public investment disbursement and the responsibilities of relevant agencies, the delegate emphasized: Every year, the Prime Minister continuously calls for accelerating the disbursement of public investment capital.
The delay in disbursement leads to stagnant capital, ineffectiveness, and at the same time, arises interest costs - a huge waste.
The delegate suggested that the Government clarify the causes, identify the responsibilities of each agency in disbursement, project management and handling arising complaints; at the same time, there should be solutions to thoroughly overcome the current waste situation that is causing many concerns.
Regarding the principle of public debt management in Article 5, the draft adds Clause 6, Article 5 stipulates: "All government debt obligations are treated equally".
Delegate Nguyen Tam Hung (HCMC Delegation) completely agreed with the spirit of transparency and ensuring national financial safety.
However, it is recommended to consider more specific regulations on the scope of "equality", because in reality, there are debts of compulsory nature, with preferential conditions, or guaranteed by the Government, so the arrangement on par with the payment priority level needs to be clearly classified.
The addition of detailed guidance will avoid conflicts when handling due debts in market fluctuations.
Regarding the mechanism for lending back through commercial banks in Article 35, the delegate agreed to give commercial banks additional authority in lending activities.
However, Clause 5, Article 35, the draft requires commercial banks to have an international credit rating equal to or one level lower than the national credit rating.
This regulation is necessary, but it should be considered feasible, because currently, not many Vietnamese commercial banks are ranked according to international standards. If kept unchanged, the risk of lacking authorized units is very high. It is recommended to consider studying and supplementing the application roadmap or a more suitable replacement assessment mechanism.
