On the afternoon of June 7, Politburo member and Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh worked with the Central provinces to remove obstacles and accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital in 2025.
The meeting was attended by leaders of central ministries, branches and leaders of localities including Hue City, Da Nang City, the provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan.
There are still many problems, affecting progress
At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Finance Do Thanh Trung reported the situation of allocation and disbursement of public investment capital of 9 localities (under the 1st working group) in the first 5 months of the year. By the end of May 5.2025, the total capital allocated to this area was more than VND 59,457 billion. However, the average disbursement rate is only 26.7% of the plan, higher than the national average (24.1%).
Of which, 8 localities have achieved an average or higher level, Phu Yen province alone has the lowest disbursement rate, reaching only 17.8%. Of these, Binh Dinh is the locality with positive disbursement results with a rate of 36%.
The three provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Khanh Hoa have not fully allocated the assigned capital plan, with a total unallocated capital of more than 172 billion VND. The reason is that there is no longer a need to use and there are proposals to adjust and transfer capital to other ministries, agencies or localities.
According to the Ministry of Finance, although the disbursement progress has changed positively compared to the first 4 months of the year. However, the implementation process still faces many difficulties and prolonged problems, directly affecting the implementation progress.
Some main reasons are: The rearrangement of the organization of local government according to new regulations affects the management of public investment; some projects have to be temporarily suspended to review and adjust the scale and goals; procedures for adjusting investment policies for ODA projects are still slow, due to having to go through many levels of approval...
Resources for national target programs are also limited because local budgets must prioritize health, education, and social security.
The Ministry of Finance recommends that provinces and cities need to unify the model of organizing commune-level government after the arrangement. The decentralization of management needs to be clearly defined, specifically defining which projects are managed by the province, which projects are assigned to the commune level. Each commune and ward needs to establish a separate Project Management Board to organize site clearance and create a clean land fund.
Select good, responsible cadres... for the locality to "take off"
In his concluding remarks, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh acknowledged the efforts of the 9 localities in the context of many difficulties. He requested that localities that have not yet fully allocated capital need to urgently complete. Focus on completely removing obstacles in site clearance for projects underway, including large projects in the future such as the Quang Ngai - Kon Tum, Pleiku - Quy Nhon, Phu Yen - Dak Lak expressways.
He said that the Government will separate the high-speed railway project, assigning localities to proactively clear the land before having investors. Therefore, the entire political system from the province to the commune needs to get involved.
For hundreds of district-level projects, Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh requested localities to maintain regional project management boards according to the instructions of the Ministry of Finance, ensuring effective disbursement and completely resolving backlogs. For key national projects, provinces must focus highly to ensure progress and strictly manage public investment capital.
Regarding the merger of administrative units at all levels, the Permanent Deputy Prime Minister said that the merger completion deadline is before September 15. However, localities that complete early need to immediately operate the 2-level government model from July 1. The Government will build appropriate support mechanisms, including organizing training, deploying virtual assistants, establishing standing groups at ministries and hotlines to promptly respond and remove arising difficulties.
He requested the Provincial Party Standing Committees to focus on selecting and arranging capable and responsible cadres, especially in communes with key projects. Cadres must dare to do and dare to take responsibility. We must prepare a very strong team for the locality to "take off".
