Significant pressure for public investment disbursement in 2025

The Vietnamese Government has initially planned to allocate more than VNĐ790 trillion (US$31.13 billion) for public investment in 2025, quite a large sum which, if approved, will put significant pressure on disbursement.

The Vietnamese Government has initially proposed to allocate more than VNĐ790 trillion (US$31.13 billion) for public investment in 2025, a significant amount which, if approved, will put heavy pressure on disbursement.

The Government’s report, recently sent to the National Assembly Standing Committee estimated the total demand for investment of ministries, agencies and localities at VNĐ871 trillion, more than VNĐ337.8 trillion of which is from the central budget, with the remainder from local budgets.

With regards to the socio-economic development plan 2025 and the medium-term public investment plan in 2021-25 period, the Government proposed public investment capital should be VNĐ790.727 trillion next year, VNĐ120 trillion higher than this year.

Notably, as 2025 is the final year to implement the medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-25 period, the Government is asking ministries, central-level agencies and localities to prioritise the allocation of the State budget for projects which are expected to be completed in the period and projects to be started in the next.

“We will raise strong and drastic measures to promptly tackle existing roadblocks to the disbursement of public investment right from the beginning of 2025, focusing on accelerating the implementation of important national projects, key projects and projects under three national target programmes," Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng said recently.

Dũng stressed that the preparation phase played a decisive role. Preparing well for the implementation of the projects helps improve readiness and feasibility while limiting problems arising during the implementation process, through which the disbursement will be accelerated, Dũng said.

In addition, the Law on Public Investment, which is being amended is also expected to create a more favourable legal framework for the disbursement of public investment.

Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyễn Khắc Định said that it is necessary to have more flexible and efficient mechanisms and policies to encourage ministries, agencies and localities to be proactive in disbursing public investment.

In addition, the capital allocated to projects which are stagnant should be transferred to projects with good progress, he said.

The Government is also accelerating the disbursement of public investment to achieve the goal of disbursing at least 95 per cent of the target at VNĐ670 trillion this year.

As of the end of September, the public disbursement rate reached only 47.29 per cent of the plan, leaving a huge workload for the last quarter of this year, at around VNĐ350 trillion.