Plenty of room for public investment disbursement in localities

Government strives to put the Eastern North-South Expressway into operation in 2022

In the total realized investment capital, the capital managed by the central government rose by 12.7% and the capital managed by the localities increased by 4.3% over the same period last year. 

According to a report by the General Statistics Office (GSO), due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the realized investment capital under the State budget in July dropped as compared to the previous month, but in the 7 months, it still reached VND 210.8 trillion, equaling 44.3% of the 2021 plan and up 5.6% over the same period last year.

Looking back at the first 7 months of 2020, the disbursement of public investment reached VND 203,000 billion, equivalent to 42.7% of the year’s plan and up 27.2% over the same period of 2019. This result is very positive, reflecting the efforts, political determination of the Government and the whole political system.

However, economic experts said that the disbursement of public investment in provinces, cities around the country still has a lot of room to create momentum for socio-economic development. Because the capital managed by the central government reached VND 35.2 trillion, equaling 41.8% of the year’s plan and up 12.7% over the same period in 2020, while the locally managed capital reached VND 175.6 trillion, equal to 44.8% of the year plan and only 4.3% over the same period of 2020.

In which, 32 localities have a disbursement rate that is higher than the national average (36.71%), 15 localities have a low disbursement rate, less than 25%. Notably, the disbursement of public investment capital under foreign sources by localities only reached over 5% of the assigned plan.

Mr. Phan Duc Hieu, Standing Member of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly, said that the Government has paid special attention to opening up public investment capital to improve efficiency as well as disbursement progress. He appreciated the Government's determination of the public investment disbursement as a priority to promote economic growth amid the 4th wave of the COVID-19 epidemic.

In July 2021, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh signed Decision 1242/QD-TTg to establish a special working group of the Prime Minister on reviewing, removing difficulties, and promoting the implementation of investment projects at ministries, sectors, and localities as well as to perform the tasks assigned by the Government. Thus, the Government not only promulgates policies and solutions, but the implementation of the latter is also very drastic.

Mr. Hoang Van Cuong, Vice-Rector of National Economics University, said amid COVID-19, the spending of businesses and people has gone down, the public investment will continue to play an important role to stimulate demand and spreading. A rise in public investment will trigger an increase in aggregate demand, creating momentum for various industries to transform in the process of economic recovery.

Disbursement of public investment with good quality and high efficiency will contribute to set up infrastructure works, assuring sustainable growth of the economy. Therefore, the positive results of public investment in the first 7 months of this year affirm that public investment capital plays a leading role to give spillover effects to various sectors.