Accountability in disbursing public investment must be enhanced to accelerate the progress (Photo: VNA) The global economy was expected to embark on the recovery process after a deepdownturn in 2020 due to the pandemic. However, the recovery would be differentfrom country to country, depending on the developments of the pandemic andefforts to contain the virus.
“It is necessary to drastically implement measures to accelerate thedisbursement of public investment in 2021, right from the first months of theyear to create the impetus for economic growth to meet and even exceedtargets,” the minister said.
Accountability must be enhanced, he stressed.
To make public investment a pillar for economic growth, the finance ministry isdeveloping a programme with a focus on removing legal bottlenecks todisbursement of public investment.
Inspections would also be enhanced to ensure the allocation and use of publicinvestment to follow National Assembly and Government plans while close watchwould be kept on the process to tackle problems.
Regarding the disbursement of public investment from foreign loans, Dung saidthe progress remained stagnant, partly due to the pandemic.
There were also subjective reasons for the stagnation, including slow siteclearance, a lack of accountability and poor preparation which requiredadjustments and slowed disbursement, he said.
He said that to fulfil the public investment plan for 2021-25, it was importantto enhance the accountability of all parties relevant to the use of publicinvestment in all stages, from preparation to implementation and settlement.
Projects which failed to meet planned progress should have their capitalrevoked, he stressed.
Statistics of the Ministry of Planning and Investment showed the disbursementof public investment was estimated at 398 trillion VND (17.3 billion USD) as ofthe end of December, meeting 82.8 percent of the Government’s plan – thehighest rate in the 2016-20, thanks to the Government’s determination to speedup the disbursement of public investment as a major driver for economic growth.
According to the General Statistics Office, every increase by 1 percent inpublic investment disbursement would push GDP by 0.06 percentage points.
The Vietnamese economy expanded at 2.91 percent in 2020, the lowest rate in thepast decade but this was considered a big success in the context of theCOVID-19 pandemic./.
VNA
