Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The disbursed publicinvestment sourced from foreign borrowing was estimated at more than 9 trillionVND in the first 11 months of the year, equivalent to only 26% of theplan, said an official from the Ministry of Finance.

In order to improve the disbursement rate of this capital, it wasproposed that procedures be further simplified and accountability be enhanced,said Truong Hung Long, Director of the ministry's Debt Management andExternal Finance Department.

Although the disbursement rate was accelerated in the secondhalf of this year after having achieved a modest rate of just 9% inthe year’s first half, Long said that the result was disappointing.

According to the Ministry of Finance, as of November 30, eight outof 13 ministries and agencies proposed lowering the plan of public investmentsourced from foreign borrowing by a total of nearly 3.68 trillion VND (notexcluding 250 billion VND of the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environmentand 50 billion VND of the Ministry of Health which were already approved), andby 8.8 trillion VND of 35 out of 59 localities.

The proposed decreased sum totalled more than 12.4 trillion VND,or 36.5% of the plan.

Long said that only three ministries and five localitieshad disbursement rates of more than 50% of the plan, 54 localities and 10ministries below 50% and notably, six ministries and four localities failed todisburse any public investment sourced from foreign borrowing.

A representative from the Hanoi People’s Committee said that theCOVID-19 pandemic in early 2022 affected the implementation of public–investedprojects.

Long proposed the Government to issue amendments to Decree No114/2021/ND-CP dated December 16, 2021 about the management and use of officialdevelopment assistance (ODA) and concessional loans towards further simplifyingprocedures and enhancing accountability.

Vo Huu Hien, the department’s deputy director, said that forpublic investment sourced from foreign borrowing which failed to bedisbursed this year, based on the projects’ implementation progress,ministries, agencies and localities would develop the capital plan for nextyear if the loan agreements were still valid.

For expired loan agreements, the undisbursed sum would be returnedto the lenders and other sources would be arranged to continue to implement theprojects.

Hien pointed out reasons for slow disbursement, such as slowsite clearance, problems in bidding procedures and adjustments to projects andloan agreements.

Currently, documents for the disbursement of an estimated sum of 2.8trillion VND were now submitted to the State treasury. If this sum wasdisbursed, the disbursement rate of public investment sourced from foreignborrowings would be around 34-35% of the plan for the full year.

Overall, the disbursement of public investment from all sourceswas 58.33% as of the end of November, leaving a huge workload for the remainingdays of this year.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that thedisbursement of public investment must be considered a key task to put worksinto operation and promote socio-economic development.

Ministries, agencies and localities must enhancediscipline in the disbursement of public investment, he said, adding thatfocus must be placed on speeding up site clearance and removing bottlenecks inland and natural resources policies.

Preparations must be geared up to complete investment proceduresto ensure readiness and feasibility for early implementation of projects anddisbursement of capital from early 2023, he said./.