Hanoi considers adjustments to public investment plans

Participants focused on extending the public investment plan in 2019 and 2020 and the plan for investment and development of the city budget in 2020, while updating the five-year medium-term public investment plan for the 2016-2020 period.

A number of projects using public investment capital from Hanoi were submitted to the municipal People’s Council for discussion and approval.

According to Chairwoman of the municipal People’s Council Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturns in Vietnam and the world, the city has still posted stable economic growth.

She noted, however, that budget collections in the city remain low in the first 10 months of the year, reaching an estimated VND183.1 trillion (US$7.9 billion), or 70.3% of the plan.

Local budget expenditure also remained low, reaching just 57.4% of the estimate, with investment spending representing 47.1% of the plan.

Ngoc emphasised the importance of fostering budget expenditure, especially investment for capital construction, saying that public investment disbursement is a practical solution for stimulating demand and promoting economic growth.

The municipal People’s Council has approved a resolution on adjusting the public investment plan in 2019 and 2020 and the investment plan for the city’s budget development in 2020.

It also adopted a resolution approving the investment policies for a number of projects using public investment capital from the city.

Ngoc asked that the Hanoi People’s Committee continue to implement solutions to speed up public investment disbursement.

She also asked for closer coordination among departments, sectors, project management boards, and localities to accelerate disbursement and the implementation of projects.