Disbursement of foreign capital public investment by localities reached 6.32%.
(Baonghean.vn) - As of June 15, the disbursement rate of foreign capital public investment by localities reached 6.32%, of which 16 localities have not yet disbursed capital allocated from the central budget.
On the afternoon of June 28, the Ministry of Finance held an online conference to review the disbursement of public investment from foreign capital sources in the first 6 months of 2023 and measures to increase disbursement in 2023. Comrade Truong Hung Long - Director of the Department of Debt Management and External Finance, Ministry of Finance chaired.
At Nghe An province, Comrade Bui Thanh An - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired. Attending were representatives of departments, branches, and localities: Planning and Investment, Finance, State Treasury, Health, Tourism, Transport, and Hoang Mai Town.

According to the report of the Ministry of Finance, in 2023, localities were assigned a total foreign capital public investment plan of more than 34,000 billion VND. Of which, the allocated capital is more than 16,000 billion VND, allocated to 50/63 localities; Re-borrowed capital is more than 18,000 billion VND, allocated to 57/63 localities. As of June 15, the amount of capital allocated and imported into Tabmis is more than 27,000 billion VND.
As of June 15, the disbursement rate of foreign capital public investment by localities reached 6.32%, of which the allocation from the central budget reached 8.2%; the re-borrowed capital from the Government's foreign loans reached 4.7%. There are 8/50 localities with a disbursement rate of over 15%; 16/50 localities have not yet disbursed the allocated capital from the central budget.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the disbursement rate of foreign capital public investment in localities is lower than that of ministries and sectors. The main problem is the implementation of adjusting investment policies, adjusting projects, extending disbursement, extending implementation time and using surplus capital.

On the other hand, some projects are in the process of bidding and site clearance, so there is no disbursement volume; fluctuations in prices of construction materials cause difficulties in construction. Many projects are stuck in bidding, site clearance, and adjustments due to design issues, affecting policies.
For Nghe An, in 2023, the ODA foreign capital plan assigned by the Prime Minister is nearly 296 billion VND, up to now, it has been allocated and assigned in detail, 100% of Tabmis has been imported for 6 projects. In addition, the plan for 2022, extended to 2023, is 4 projects, with more than 94 billion VND. The total re-borrowed capital from the Government's foreign loans in 2023 of Nghe An province is 264 billion VND and has been assigned in detail reaching 100%, importing nearly 90 billion VND of Tabmis.
As of June 20, the province has disbursed more than VND40 billion in foreign capital allocated from the central budget, reaching 13.75% of the plan. New projects extended from 2022 to 2023 have not yet been disbursed. Re-borrowed capital from the Government's foreign loans has disbursed more than VND10 billion, reaching 3.8%.

At the conference, representatives of localities reported on the disbursement of foreign public investment capital, difficulties and obstacles, and proposed solutions to accelerate capital disbursement. Representatives of central ministries and branches discussed and answered questions from localities.
Concluding the conference, Director of the Department of Debt Management and External Finance (Ministry of Finance) Truong Hung Long said that to speed up the disbursement progress, localities should urgently implement solutions within their management scope and closely coordinate with relevant agencies to speed up the disbursement progress of public investment capital, including foreign loans and foreign preferential loans.
The Ministry of Finance recommends that localities allocate detailed budget estimates to each project, ensuring that they are close to the project's progress and disbursement needs and promptly enter them into the Tabmis system so that projects have a basis for disbursement; discuss with donors in case of arising problems, especially for projects with changes, requiring adjustments to investment policies and loan agreements.

Mr. Truong Hung Long stated that project owners need to focus on implementing programs and projects to promptly have the volume for disbursement; closely coordinate and monitor project implementation by relevant parties according to loan, aid and counterpart capital sources; select consultants with sufficient capacity and experience in project design, ensuring quality, suitability with reality and avoiding adjustments during implementation.
The Ministry of Finance pledges to continue coordinating to remove difficulties, resolutely and synchronously implement solutions to accelerate disbursement of public investment capital, and accelerate the application of information technology in disbursing ODA capital and preferential loans.