The decision is part of a wider adjustment to speed up the disbursement progress and meet the actual capital needs of the city, according to the Hanoi People's Council. 

In a meeting on Monday, the municipal People's Council reviewed three reports on the adjustment of the public investment plan in 2022, an update of the five-year medium-term public investment plan for 2021-2025, and the public investment plan for 2023.

According to Do Anh Tuan, director of the Hanoi Planning and Investment Department, the total allocated public investment this year is VND51.58 trillion (US$2.2 billion), of which VND13.84 trillion ($589.6 million) was disbursed by August 22, or 27.1 per cent of the plan.

The People's Committee set out five principles to adjust the 2022 public investment plan, including capital reduction and increase for projects.

The adjustment plan was to keep the total plan capital of VND51.58 trillion but adjust only for the projects of the total plan.

Capital for city-level projects will be reduced by VND1.22 trillion ($52.3 million), and the cost for items of urban planning, ground clearance and supporting the city's agencies will be dropped to VND1.5 trillion ($63.9 million). However, district-level projects would be given additional capital of VND16.1 billion ($686,331) from the city's budget.

After review, the council's Economic and Budget Commission realised the need to adjust the public investment plan to push up the city's disbursement progress and capital requirements and agreed with the proposals of the People's Committee.

The commission requested the city People's Committee clarify the reasons for the low disbursement progress of public investment capital that has only reached 27.1 per cent, compared to 35.49 per cent, by the end of August this year.​​ 

For the five-year medium-term public investment plan in 2021-25, the total capital was VND321.1 trillion ($13.7 billion), of which the allocated capital for 2021 and 2022 was VND62.3 trillion ($2.66 billion), equal to 26.5 per cent of the total mid-term public investment of the city.

The five-year medium-term public investment plan for 2021-2025 has been balanced following the goals and needs of socio-economic development.

The Economic and Budget Commission agreed with the assessment of the City People's Committee and the need to adjust, update and supplement the medium-term public investment plan to effectively use capital sources and promptly respond to important projects serving the socio-economic development goals of the city.

To ensure compliance with regulations and principles, the commission asked the People's Committee to report and further clarify the projects that would be updated and adjusted under the medium-term public investment plan.

At present, the progress of approving investment projects is still very slow. For example, there were 137 projects to which the People's Council agreed, but the People's Committee has only approved 33 projects, accounting for 24 per cent.

In addition, there were 169 projects with total investment capital of VND25.3 trillion ($1 billion) that used the medium-term capital budget and have not yet completed the preparation for investment.

According to the commission, almost half of the medium-term plan has passed. However, only about one-third of the projects have been approved, so the risk of falling behind schedule is real.

The commission asked the People's Committee to review, complete procedures and quickly deploy projects to ensure the schedule, especially for key projects in the city.

The People's Committee was asked to review further and update the plan to use the additional capital following the capital needs of each project, especially large-scale key projects such as the pilot urban railway project of the Nhon-Hanoi Railway Station section.

The committee must clarify the list of ten key projects expected to use VND16.2 trillion ($696 million) from the additional sources of the medium-term public investment plan.

Regarding the plan of public investment for 2023, the central government has not yet announced the capital source for the city. However, the People's Committee has initially calculated next year's total capital of VND52.6 trillion ($2.24 billion), almost equal to this year's amount.

The committee should also define the investment orientation and estimate the capital allocation for sectors and fields next year.

The year 2023 is the pivotal year for the implementation of the 5-year medium-term plan for 2021-25. Key projects and target programmes have been ensured capital for implementation. 

Source: Vietnam News