The province needs to have a more drastic attitude towards slow-moving projects.

Group 1 includes delegates from the People's Council of Vinh city and Cua Lo town. Participating in group 1 were comrade Nguyen Xuan Son - Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; members of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee: Nguyen Thi Thu Huong - Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department; Phan Duc Dong - Secretary of the Vinh City Party Committee and Nguyen Thi Kim Chi - Secretary of the Cua Lo Town Party Committee. Also attending were Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Dinh Long; representatives of a number of provincial departments, branches and sectors. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Many projects are slow to implement

Discussing in groups, delegates highly appreciated the leadership and management role of all levels and sectors in 2020. Although this was a year with many fluctuations negatively affecting the socio-economy, the province's economic growth rate still reached 4.45%, ranking 19th in the country and 2nd in the North Central region.

In addition, some delegates also raised many concerns related to the shortcomings, difficulties and obstacles. Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Chi (Cua Lo town) said that currently in the province there is a "wave" ofinvestnew with many projects that are dynamic and breakthrough in budget collection for the province; however, the thoughts and aspirations of many voters are that the province needs to pay attention to the development of small and medium enterprises, cooperatives, cooperative groups, and individual business households.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Chi (Cua Lo town) proposed that the Provincial People's Committee pay attention to the development of small and medium enterprises. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Delegate Nguyen Thi Kim Chi also said that in 2020, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic had a direct and severe impact on the tourism economy and in 2021, the control of the pandemic has not shown any positive results, which means that the tourism economy continues to be affected. Therefore, the trend of developing domestic tourism needs to be focused on and promoted.

However, the current situation of tourism infrastructure and urban beautification of Cua Lo town is weak, so it is recommended that the province continue to support investment in infrastructure development of Cua Lo town. At the same time, it is necessary to be drastic in handling theproject behind scheduleor not implemented, because in reality in the town there are many projects that have been approved for investment for many years but not implemented, causing stagnation in the town's development.

Delegate Cao Tien Trung speaks at the discussion session. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Also concerned about the slow-progressing projects, delegate Cao Tien Trung (Vinh city) stated: Over the years, every voter contact session has recorded feedback on projects that were approved for investment for 10-15 years but were not implemented, causing waste of land resources and loss of investment opportunities for many other investors. Therefore, the Provincial People's Committee needs to continue reviewing to terminate projects that are not implemented and transfer them to other investors or remove the planning.

Regarding the delayed projects, delegate Le Tien Tri (Head of the Southeast Economic Zone Management Board) reported that there are currently 17 delayed projects in the Southeast Economic Zone and requested the Provincial People's Committee and relevant sectors to objectively evaluate the projects to recover and terminate investment according to regulations.

Delegate Le Tien Tri (Head of the Southeast Economic Zone Management Board) reported that currently in the Southeast Economic Zone, there are 17 projects behind schedule. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Explaining the issue of slow-progressing projects, delegate Nguyen Thi Giang - Deputy Head of the General Department, Department of Planning and Investment affirmed that in the past time, the province has made great efforts in this work. The proof is that in the period of 2016-2020, the province directed the inspection of 454 projects (the number of inspected projects was 2.18 times the number of inspected projects in the period of 2011-2015); of which, up to 56.6% of the projects had been allocated land or leased land. And the number of projects that were revoked accounted for nearly 32% of the total number of inspected projects.

Nghe An is also the first province to issue regulations on coordination in inspecting and handling slow-progressing projects nationwide in Decision No. 25/2018/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee.

However, in reality, there are still many slow-moving projects that have not been reviewed and inspected. The reason is that reviewing and synthesizing information and data on investment projects is difficult; especially projects approved before the Investment Law 2014 - at this time, many projects did not have to carry out investment registration procedures; on the other hand, each project must carry out 10 groups of procedures at relevant departments, branches and sectors.

In the coming time, implementing Decision No. 25/2018/QD-UBND, the Department of Planning and Investment will continue to coordinate with departments, branches and localities to continue advising the Provincial People's Committee to more drastically handle projects that are behind schedule or not implemented.

There should be specific mechanisms for key areas.

In addition to the above issue, some delegates in Group 1 also proposed that the province should have specific policies and mechanisms for key economic zones, including Cua Lo town and Vinh city; when Vinh city and Cua Lo town develop, it will create a common development momentum for the province.

Regarding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the shortfall in some budget revenues compared to the 2020 budget estimate, the provincial People's Council delegate requested the provincial People's Committee to have a plan to compensate for the shortfall and meet budget expenditures.

Director of the Department of Construction Nguyen Truong Giang participated in the discussion at group 1. Photo: Thanh Cuong

In addition, the Provincial People's Committee also needs to direct and urge the implementation of decisions and conclusions after inspections and checks, ensuring that administrative discipline and order are strictly implemented, especially fully implementing the contents of conclusions after the recent comprehensive inspection of urban and apartment projects, ensuring the rights of the people and meeting the requirements of civilized and modern urban development of Vinh city.

Another issue that was also proposed by the Provincial People's Council delegates is that the Provincial People's Committee needs to have a specific plan for the use of facilities and cultural and sports institutions in administrative units at the commune level and the blocks, hamlets, and villages that are merging; pay attention to having effective solutions in the fight against drug crimes and drug use; illegal acts such as multi-level activities, "black" credit, "mafia"; propagate and guide people to properly implement the Government's new regulations on fireworks, avoid misunderstanding and violating the regulations...