Agriculture ministry vows to ensure progress, quality of public capital disbursement

Hanoi (VNA) - Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung held a meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) in Hanoi on August 19 to examine public investment disbursement in the agriculture sector.

The ministry has been assigned to allocate over 17.32 trillion VND (749.9 million USD) in funds this year, including 1.8 trillion VND in foreign capital the ministry returned to the State as it is unable to disburse it.

The sum also includes 9.9 trillion VND sourced from Government bonds, with about 8 trillion VND for construction and another 1.88 trillion VND for site clearance compensation.

Though the greatest challenge facing construction is site clearance, the MARD has accelerated and completed many planned projects, it said, and affirmed it will disburse all of the funding for construction in 2020.

It was also tasked with allocating 2.1 trillion VND for compensation and resettlement this year, but 223 billion VND has been transferred to fund construction due to slow capital disbursement for site clearance.

Regarding projects funded through official development assistance (ODA), the ministry was given more than 3.6 trillion VND to disburse this year but actual needs are just 1.83 trillion VND. Given this, the MARD and the Ministry of Planning and Investment proposed the Prime Minister transfer the remaining capital to other sectors.

As of the end of July, the MARD had disbursed 36.6 percent of all public funding sources and expects the rate to reach 94.1 percent for the year as a whole.

Deputy PM Dung said the agriculture sector has many important projects in the pipeline and the disbursement of public investment is critical in developing agricultural infrastructure, which in turn creates conditions for attracting more investment to the sector and improving productivity and product quality.

He asked the MARD to work with other ministries and sectors to remove obstacles facing project implementation, including in regard to site clearance and construction, while ensuring project progress and quality and preventing waste.

He also suggested the MARD and other ministries build investment plans for important facilities like those regulating saltwater and freshwater in the Mekong Delta, wharves for fishing boats, reinforcement of reservoirs and dams, and natural disaster prevention efforts.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said the progress and the efficiency of public investment disbursement are both important, noting that the building of saltwater control facilities in the Mekong Delta has been sped up to help mitigate the severe drought and saline intrusion seen earlier this year.

He pledged that the ministry would work hard to ensure the progress and the quality of projects funded with public capital./.