Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung conveyed the Prime Minister's criticism of ministers and chairmen from People's Committees of 13 ministries and provinces in relation to the slow disbursement of public investment in 2017. 

Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung speaks at the meeting.

Minister Dung, who led the PM Working Group to meet with heads of 13 ministries, provinces and cities on July 25, named the list of ministries and localities reporting slow disbursement including the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health, and the cities of Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, among others.

The report showed that over VND357 trillion (US$15.71 billion) was to be allocated for development investment purposes in 2017 including VND307 trillion (US$13.5 billion) sourced from the State budget and VND50 trillion (US$2.2 billion) from Government bonds.

However, only VND85 trillion (US$3.74 billion) had been disbursed by June 15, equivalent to 23.9% of the year's plan and 27.6% of the plan set by the National Assembly and the Prime Minister.

In particular, 13 ministries, agencies and localities have disbursed less than 20% of the set plan, namely the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the State Bank of Vietnam, the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, Vietnam News Agency, the Veterans Association of Vietnam, and the cities of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, and Tay Ninh.

The PM Working Group said that slow disbursement of public investment leads to a bottleneck to national economic growth, adding that if there is no urgent solution to accelerate the disbursement, the economic growth will encounter negative effects amid increasing public debt.

Minister Dung noted that slow disbursement of public investment was firstly due to leaders of ministries and localities in addition to a lack of good direction and inadequacies in procedures, among others.

Minister Dung emphasised that the PM asked related ministries, agencies and localities to take more drastic measures to address the late disbursement while heads of these agencies will have to take responsibility towards the PM.

If the disbursement is not improved by October this year, the PM will consider transferring the funds to other ministries and localities, Dung added.

Nhan Dan