Reduce administrative procedures, speed up the implementation of important strategic infrastructure projects

On the morning of January 7, continuing the program of the first extraordinary session, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai, the 15th National Assembly discussed online the draft Resolution on fiscal and monetary policies to support the Socio-economic Recovery and Development Program.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council chaired at the bridge point of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province.

Panorama of the working session on the morning of January 7 at Dien Hong Hall, National Assembly House. Photo: Quang Khanh

REDUCE LOAN INTEREST RATES TO SUPPORT BUSINESSES

Speaking at the discussion from Nghe An province, delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation expressed her high agreement with the preparation of the Government and the National Assembly Standing Committee on the Project on fiscal and monetary policies to support the socio-economic recovery and development program to be submitted to the National Assembly at this extraordinary session.

“The viewpoints and objectives put forward are completely correct and appropriate. The five fiscal and monetary solutions to support the implementation of the program have been carefully and thoroughly calculated,” said delegate Thai Thi An Chung, adding three more comments to the draft Resolution.

Delegates attending the meeting at the Nghe An Provincial National Assembly Delegation bridge. Photo: Thanh Duy

First of all, regarding the fiscal solution, regarding the solution to allow deductible expenses when determining taxable income for corporate income tax on support and sponsorship expenses of enterprises and organizations for Covid-19 prevention and control activities in Vietnam, the draft proposes two options.

Accordingly, the Deputy Head of the Nghe An National Assembly Delegation proposed to implement the plan to allow deductions when determining taxable income for corporate income tax on support and sponsorship expenses of enterprises and organizations in cash and in kind for Covid-19 prevention and control activities, because during the 4th outbreak, together with the people of the whole country, the business community has made great contributions to the epidemic prevention and control work, not only in cash but also in kind. On that basis, the female delegate agreed with the Government's proposal to allow deductions when there are full legal invoices and documents.

However, it is recommended that the Ministry of Finance provide flexible guidance on procedures and records, appropriate to the specifics of the anti-epidemic period as in the past. On the other hand, it is necessary to clarify when this deduction is applied, as the draft regulation "until the competent authority announces the end of the Covid-19 epidemic" is still general and unclear.

Delegate Thai Thi An Chung - Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province spoke at the discussion. Photo: Thanh Duy

Regarding monetary solutions to support the recovery program, in the content: "Directing credit institutions to continue to reduce management costs to strive to reduce lending interest rates by at least 0.5 - 1% in 2 years", delegate Thai Thi An Chung suggested not using the word "strive", because this is a solution, not a policy, so it needs to be specifically regulated for implementation.

Regarding this solution, Ms. Thai Thi An Chung also said that the issue of "continuing to reduce management costs" should not be raised. Delegates suggested that the draft Resolution should be clearly stated as: "Instructing credit institutions to continue to reduce lending interest rates by at least 0.5 - 1% in 2 years", to more clearly demonstrate the policy of accompanying businesses.

REMOVING PROCEDURAL DIFFICULTIES TO SPEED UP HIGH-SPEED PROGRESS

Regarding the pilot application of specific mechanisms to accelerate the implementation progress and disbursement of capital for important, large-scale strategic infrastructure projects under the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program, the Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province agreed with the pilot application of the form of designated bidding for bid packages related to compensation, site clearance and resettlement to overcome the current situation of delay and prolongation of site clearance and resettlement. At the same time, it is recommended to add the form of designated bidding for cemetery resettlement bid packages, because this has also been a problem in practice in recent times.

Regarding the pilot project of construction and installation bidding, Ms. Thai Thi An Chung suggested that it is necessary to clearly stipulate the accompanying condition as "requiring to save 5% of the estimated value of the bidding package", and not to stipulate as in the draft as "about 5%" to ensure consistency in implementation. At the same time, it is also necessary to clearly stipulate the progress bonus framework so that the investor and contractor can more easily negotiate the bonus level in the contract.

Delegates attending the meeting at the Nghe An Provincial National Assembly Delegation bridge. Photo: Thanh Duy

Regarding the permission for investors to exploit mineral mines included in the project's construction material survey dossier as common construction materials without having to go through licensing procedures, the female delegate of Nghe An Delegation expressed agreement with this proposal of the Government to reduce administrative procedures and speed up project implementation progress.

However, she also suggested assigning the investor to manage the construction material mine and include it in the project estimate to reduce intermediary steps and costs because this is a public investment project; however, there needs to be a solution to strictly manage the exploitation, avoiding the situation of taking advantage to carry out other projects.

In addition, the Government needs to continue to research and resolve problems related to procedures for converting forest use purposes, because if the forest use purpose has not been converted, land lease procedures cannot be carried out, and if land has not been leased, mining cannot be carried out.

Delegates attending the meeting at the Nghe An Provincial National Assembly Delegation bridge. Photo: Thanh Duy

Delegate Thai Thi An Chung also proposed that the National Assembly consider authorizing the National Assembly Standing Committee to consider and decide on the conversion of forest use purposes related to construction material mines to implement key projects and strategic infrastructure.

Regarding decentralization, delegation of authority and allocation of capital for the provincial People's Committee to implement expressway project sections in the form of public investment in the area, Ms. Thai Thi An Chung expressed her opinion: "It is necessary to have a unified regulation assigning the implementation to the provincial People's Committee where the section passes through because the tasks, powers, capacity and experience of the localities are the same, it cannot be said that province A has capacity and experience while province B does not. On the other hand, it is also not advisable to have a regulation "with a written proposal" because this is a matter of responsibility".

Further analyzing the above proposal, the Deputy Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An province said: “At this session, the Government submitted to the National Assembly for consideration to amend and supplement a number of articles of the Investment Law, Public Investment Law, Public-Private Partnership Investment Law... in the direction of increasing decentralization to provincial authorities, then the decentralization, delegation of authority and allocation of capital to the Provincial People's Committee to implement sections of expressway projects in the form of public investment passing through the locality is completely appropriate, ensuring consistency".

Delegates attending the meeting at the Nghe An Provincial National Assembly Delegation bridge. Photo: Thanh Duy

At this session, the Government submitted to the National Assembly a draft resolution on fiscal and monetary policies to support the implementation of the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program. These are additional policies, in addition to the financial and monetary policy framework decided by the National Assembly in the socio-economic development plan; financial plan, public borrowing and debt repayment plan, and public investment plan for the period 2021-2025. The total value of these policies in the next 2 years is up to nearly 350 trillion VND.

The goal is to quickly restore production, supply, and labor chains, promote growth drivers, strive to achieve an average growth target of 6.5 - 7% per year in the 2021-2025 period, maintain macroeconomic stability, and ensure major balances in the medium and long term.

The program defines a framework of key issues that need to be focused on, including 5 main groups of tasks and solutions with an expected implementation scale in 2022-2023, including: Opening the economy associated with investment in improving healthcare capacity, disease prevention and control; ensuring social security and supporting employment; supporting the recovery of enterprises, cooperatives, and business households; developing infrastructure, unlocking social resources for development investment; institutional reform, administrative reform, and improving the investment and business environment. In addition, mobilizing from non-state budget financial funds.