Transport ministry’s public investment disbursement surpasses national average

The Cao Bo Bridge, part of the North-South Expressway, is being expanded. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Transport had disbursed 13.38 trillion VND (573 million USD) out of the 39.76 trillion VND as of June 30, or 33.7 percent, as compared with the national average of 30.2 percent.

The ministry, therefore, has been named among the top nine ministries and agencies to have made outstanding performance in disbursement in the first half of this year.

Adjusting capital of projects with slow disbursement

Statistics of the Vietnam State Treasury revealed that, by the end of July, the transport ministry had disbursed more than 41 percent of the total assigned capital. The number is expected to reach about 57 percent by the end of August and some 66 percent in September, higher than the national rate of 60 percent.

In August and September, the ministry will continue to adjust investment of projects with slow disbursement, aiming to disburse all of the capital sourced from the budget this year.

For the official development assistance (ODA), the ministry has been tasked with disbursing nearly 7 trillion VND, and it is striving to meet that target.

As of the end of July, 1.7 trillion VND out of the 4.14 trillion VND of 14 major transport projects had been disbursed, fulfilling 41 percent of the plan. Among the 14 projects, the route linking the Hanoi-Hai Phong Expressway and the Cau Gie-Ninh Binh Expressway has been completed, while the rest are under construction.

Notably, the construction of the projects upgrading runways of Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat international airports began on June 29 as scheduled. Some 274 billion VND of the combined investment was disbursed one month later. The remaining 554 billion USD is expected to be disbursed during the closing months of this year.

Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong blamed the slow disbursement to bottlenecks in site clearance, citing the North-South Expressway that runs through 13 provinces as an example.

Meanwhile, some ODA projects have been hindered due to problems relating to investment structure and agreement expansion procedures.

Red tape in project approval

Minister of Transport Nguyen Van The admitted that difficulties in public investment disbursement are caused by forecasting and planning work, as the ministry has worked as both the state management agency and the project investor at the same time.

It takes the projects from 2-3 years to be approved while capital allocation is set for only five years, he continued. Therefore, there is not much time left for disbursement.

According to The, the ministry has put forward a plan to submit to the Government a budget of around 400 trillion VND for the 2021-2025 period. Priority has been given to building expressways like Can Tho-Ca Mau Cape, Hanoi-Huu Nghi, Hoa Binh-Moc Chau-Son La and those leading to Bac Kan and Mong Cai.

To save time, the ministry has assigned project management boards to make pre-feasibility reports for these projects, he said.

It will ask for the Prime Minister’s approval of additional public investment capital during the 2016-2020 period for important and urgent projects whose investment would be disbursed right after capital allocation, with no mid-term quota or mid-term quota fulfilled.

The ministry has proposed the PM instruct relevant ministries and agencies to coordinate with and support it in removing obstacles in the implementation of the Cat Linh-Ha Dong urban railway project.

Ministries and agencies should promptly provide guidance on payment procedures for build-transfer (BT) projects and capital adjustment to ensure the disbursement, The said.

The PM previously issued Decision No. 1053/QD-TTg on the establishment of working groups that are in charge of inspecting and handling knots in production and business, and pushing ahead with public investment disbursement, including ODA, in some ministries, agencies and localities this year./.