Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha speaks at the meeting on May 7. (Photo: VNA)

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha urged ministries, sectors, and localities to identify and resolve bottlenecks hindering the disbursement of public investment capital while presiding over a meeting of the Prime Minister’s task force No.2 on the work in Hanoi on May 7.

Task force No.2 is charged with overseeing capital disbursement in a range of entities, comprising the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, the Ministry of Construction, the Party Central Committee’s Office, the President’s Office, the Vietnam Fatherland Front’s Central Committee, the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, the Vietnam National University, HCM City, and some ocalities - Hanoi, Phu Tho, Bac Giang, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Quang Tri.

According to the Ministry of Finance’s report, the total state budget investment capital plan for 2025 allocated to 16 units under the task force exceeds 253.25 trillion VND (9.75 billion USD), accounting for 30.66% of the country's total investment capital plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

As of May 6, the total allocated capital topped 250.13 trillion VND, achieving 98.76% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

Deputy Minister of Finance Cao Anh Tuan said seven localities with disbursement rates higher than the national average were Phu Tho (46.71%), Thanh Hoa (39.02%), Ha Tinh (29.43%), Nghe An (22.56%), Quang Binh (19.23%), Bac Giang (18%), and Hoa Binh (17.34%). Notably, the Ministry of Construction and Hanoi city had the absolute disbursement figures, over 11.82 trillion VND and nearly 9.6 trillion VND, respectively.

Several ministries, central agencies, and localities with slow capital allocation and disbursement attributed their difficulties to land origin determination, pricing, compensation plans, site clearance, and overlaps between land use planning and construction planning. Additional challenges included time-consuming environmental impact assessment procedures, forest land conversion processes, and material shortages, particularly natural sand in some localities due to ongoing investigations into licencing and extraction.

Deputy PM Ha asked competent sides to thoroughly review troubles related to organisational restructuring while actively addressing limitations in applying existing mechanisms and policies.

He tasked the Ministry of Finance with coordinating with other ministries, sectors, and localities to update accurate data on capital allocation and disbursement, identify the causes of the delays, and propose solutions for capital transfers, allocations and project terminations.

Additionally, he directed the Ministry of Construction and Vietnam National University, HCM City to resolve issues related to the 1/500-scale construction planning approval. The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment must explain why it proposed returning over 3.8 trillion VND of unused capital, while Quang Tri province and Vietnam National University, Hanoi were instructed to focus on addressing their own specific challenges./.