Expedite the payment of forest environmental service fees.

(Baonghean.vn) -On the afternoon of May 24th, under the chairmanship of Mr. Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and Chairman of the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund Management Council, the Provincial People's Committee held a working session with the Nghe An Forest Protection and Development Fund Management Council to discuss issues related to the fund's operations.

Comrade Dinh Viet Hong chaired the meeting.

By May 2014, the Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund had collected over 100 billion 639 million VND from various sources, including over 95 billion VND from hydropower plants, over 40 million VND from water treatment plants, over 1.5 billion VND from land-use conversion projects, and over 4 billion VND in bank interest. In the first five months of 2014, the Fund disbursed 70% of the forest environmental service fees for 2012 and 2013 to three state-owned forest owners whose contract designs had been approved by competent authorities, totaling over 22 billion VND. In addition, the Fund developed its 2014 revenue and expenditure plan; developed a plan for utilizing the funds recovered from the Ban Ve Hydropower Plant in 2011; and reviewed and implemented the recovery of mandatory payments…

Comrade Nguyen Khac Lam - Director of the fund - presented the activity report.

Comrade Nguyen Tien Lam - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, delivered a speech.

Concluding the meeting, Comrade Dinh Viet Hong stated that the workload for 2014 is quite substantial. The Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund needs to focus on preparing detailed budget estimates for the revenue and expenditure plan for 2014, as approved by the Provincial People's Committee. He also urged forest owners to expedite the development of forest protection plans and the preparation of technical design documents for forest protection contracts in the catchment areas of hydropower plants, submitting them to competent authorities for approval so that the fund has a basis for paying forest environmental service fees. Furthermore, he instructed continued work with the group of water production and supply facilities to supplement the costs of forest environmental service payments, guiding the declaration process and agreeing on the timeframe for signing the entrustment contracts…

Mr. Tuan