Vietnam’s disbursement of public funds improves in H1

By June 30, about VND216 trillion (US$9.1 billion) is expected to be disbursed for public investment projects, reaching 30.49% of the plan approved by the Prime Minister.

The Ring Road No.2 section of Vinh Tuy Bridge - Nga Tu Vong is under construction. Photo: Pham Hung/The Hanoi Times

This represents an on-year increase of 27.75%, a report from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) showed. In particular, domestic capital disbursement reached 29.13%, surpassing the figure for the same period in 2022 (26.76%), while foreign capital disbursement reached 15.72%, up 8.61% year-on-year.

The MoF report noted that nine ministries and 32 localities had achieved a disbursement rate of more than 30%.

However, 39 ministries, central agencies, and 12 localities have disbursed less than 20% of their budget allocation. Among them, 37 ministries, central agencies, and three localities have disbursed less than 15% of their capital plan.

At the recent monthly government press briefing, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong stressed that the higher disbursement rate reflects positive progress in public investment projects.

He attributed these results to the effective measures taken at the beginning of the year to promote disbursement, as directed by the Government and the Prime Minister.

Phuong acknowledged that the disbursement target for the whole of 2023 of nearly VND711 trillion ($30 billion) represents a significant and challenging task in the remaining six months of the year.

He stressed the need to continue implementing the solutions since the beginning of the year and to intensify their efforts in the last six months. The goal is to achieve a disbursement target of at least 95% of the total allocated capital plan set by the Prime Minister.

During the last session of the National Assembly concluded in mid-June, a decision was made to address issues related to public investment. This decision allows the allocation of medium-term capital to projects under the ongoing socio-economic recovery program. It creates favorable conditions for the deployment of more projects towards the end of the year.

6.5% GDP target a challenge

Commenting on the economic growth target, Phuong said that the coming period until the end of the year will continue to be challenging. Therefore, achieving the economic growth target of 6.5% for the whole year, as stated in the National Assembly resolution, is a big challenge.

Although the Ministry of Planning and Investment has provided a slightly lower scenario of 6% growth, this would require a growth rate of 6.8% in the third quarter and 9% in the fourth quarter.

"To attain the National Assembly's target of 6.5%, we need to achieve a growth rate of at least 7.4% in the third quarter and 10.3% in the fourth quarter. Although we exceeded the 10% growth target in the third quarter of 2022, this year's situation is much more challenging than last year's," Phuong said.

He said the government plans to formulate a new resolution on promoting economic growth to support economic growth for the rest of the year.

"This resolution has been shared with agencies and localities for their input and feedback. The Ministry of Planning and Investment will collect, clarify and finalize the draft resolution, which will then be submitted to the Government for consideration. This resolution includes many solutions aimed at achieving socio-economic growth targets from now until the end of the year," he said.