Greatest efforts made to fulfill public investment targets

“Units focus resources on public investment, shorten appraisal and approval time, and increase coordination to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles, speed up projects, and make decisions with focus on implementing public investment in 2023 to complete the targets assigned by the provincial People's Council," directed by Vo Van Minh - Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee at the preliminary meeting of public investment in the 10 months of 2023 and tasks for the remaining months at the end of the year.

Disbursement flourishes

According to the assessment of the Department of Planning and Investment, the province's 2023 capital disbursement plan compared to the same period in 2022 is higher in both absolute (3.17 times) and relative numbers (same period reached 43.6%). Specifically for the Central budget capital, the provincial People's Committee has allocated more than VND 3,142 billion, and more than VND 18,675 billion for local budget capital allocation.

Vo Van Minh, Deputy Secretary of provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee is addressing the meeting to sum up public investments in 10 months of the year

Regarding implementation and disbursement according to capital sources, the disbursement value to date has reached 55.6% of the plan; the province's disbursement rate for the whole year is estimated to reach 92.4% of the plan. For investors, the disbursement value to date has reached 53.4% of the plan with an estimated disbursement rate for the whole year reaching 93.4%. For key projects, the disbursement value to date has reached 57.4% of the plan, and the estimated disbursement for the whole year is 91.2% of the plan. The total capital plan for 2022 extends the implementation time and disbursement to 2023 by more than VND 520.9 billion; the disbursement value to date is 478.5 billion VND, reaching 91.9%; estimated disbursement for the whole year reaches 99.7%.

From the beginning of the year, the progress of key works and projects has been paid attention to and promoted by the province. The province has started construction on a number of sections of the Ho Chi Minh city Vanh Dai 3 project passing through Binh Duong province, creating momentum and motivation to implement projects in the province. In addition, a number of main obstacles affecting the disbursement of public investment capital that have persisted for many years have now basically been resolved.

Specifically, the provincial People's Committee has issued and amended regulations on compensation, support and resettlement policies, for the policy of unifying capital sources to relocate technical infrastructure works to hand over construction sites for the projects.

Concentrated resources

Although disbursement of public investment capital is improving, it is still slow compared to the requirements and commitments of units from the beginning of the year. Reporting at the meeting, Mr. Lai Xuan Dat, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Investment, said that to complete the assigned capital plan, the remaining workload in the last months of the year is very large. On average  each month, more than VND 3,200 billion must be disbursed, while in the 10 months of the year, the average monthly disbursement was only more than VND 1,200 billion.

According to the Department of Planning and Investment, compensation and site clearance is still the main bottleneck affecting the construction progress of projects. The order and procedures for land recovery, compensation, and resettlement support are long and complicated. Some compensation and support policies are not consistent with reality. In addition, the investment preparation work for some projects is not comprehensive.

At the meeting, representatives of the People's Committees of districts, towns and cities raised a number of difficulties and problems with legal regulations related to public investment that are still slow to be amended; compensation for site clearance and appraisal of project policies have been delayed.. Tran Hung Viet, Director of the provincial Traffic Works Project Management Board, said that component projects with large volumes are being implemented in a short time, causing great pressure on participating entities. Site clearance and site handover work is slow and not as planned, and procedures for relocating technical infrastructure are complicated. Besides, the appraisal process takes a long time.

In the last 3 months of the year, the province will focus on accelerating the disbursement of public investment capital with further strengthening the role and responsibility of heads of sectors and localities in directing and removing difficulties and obstacles, especially problems related to site clearance. In addition, the province continues to regularly inspect, supervise and take strict measures to handle cases where project implementation time is prolonged due to poor capacity of contractors or consulting units. They also consider not allowing contractors to participate in other projects in the province that violate the contract to affect the progress and quality of the projects.

Speaking at the meeting, Vo Van Minh, Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee praised the units for their efforts in implementation, especially localities with large disbursement values. At the same time, the Chairman of the provincial People's Committee requested units to focus resources on public investment, shorten the time for appraisal and approval, and strengthen coordination to promptly remove difficulties and obstacles to accelerate the progress of projects.

Reported by Phuong Le – Translated by Vi Bao