Ministries, localities urged to accelerate public investment disbursement in late 2025

The Ministry of Finance held a hybrid conference — both in-person and online — with ministries, agencies and local authorities in Ha Noi on October 15 to discuss the disbursement of foreign-funded public investment in the remaining months of 2025, measures to accelerate this process, and orientations for the 2026 implementation plan.

The disbursement rate of foreign-funded public investment by ministries, sectors and localities reached 18.68% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister as of October 14, 2025. Among them, four entities achieved a disbursement rate of over 50%, including Viet Nam National University Ha Noi, Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Dien Bien Province and Ninh Binh Province.

Meanwhile, five ministries and localities, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tay Ninh, Dong Nai, Hung Yen and Lai Chau provinces have yet to begin disbursement of their 2025 foreign-funded public investment plans.

Speaking at the session, Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Quoc Phuong stated that public investment disbursement, especially Official Development Assistance (ODA), remains among the Government’s and the Prime Minister’s top priorities. Nevertheless, progress remains modest.

“The aim of today’s conference is to exchange views and analyse causes and propose practical solutions. The most important thing is to identify the root cause: why, despite many bottlenecks having been addressed since the start of the year — from laws and decrees to management mechanisms — the disbursement rate remains slow. Solutions should be divided into two groups: first, short-term and urgent measures that can be implemented this year; second, long-term and fundamental solutions for the coming years to ensure a marked improvement in disbursement progress,” Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong emphasised.

During the conference, ministries, agencies and localities discussed and identified key reasons for the slow disbursement. These include delays in land clearance, procurement and contract signing; projects requiring adjustments to investment policies, project scopes, loan agreements or capital plans; delays in receiving non-objection letters from donors for bidding documents or loan agreement amendments; administrative changes following local government reorganisations requiring additional donor procedures; and cases where projects are simultaneously disbursing funds from both the 2024 and 2025 capital plans.

To address these issues, the conference reached a consensus on several measures, including closely monitoring progress, prioritising implementation of projects with completed preparatory work, and promptly resolving obstacles related to land clearance, bidding and other administrative procedures within their authority.

The year 2025 marks the final year of the 2021–2025 Five-Year Socio-Economic Development Plan — a particularly significant period for achieving breakthroughs and positive changes in fulfilling the goals of both the socio-economic and medium-term public investment plans.

Accelerating the implementation and disbursement of public investment capital holds vital importance, directly contributing to domestic production, infrastructure development and the removal of bottlenecks hindering growth, thereby fostering fast and sustainable economic development.

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