Chairing a national conference on public investment for 2025 and 2026 in Hanoi, the Prime Minister said public investment remains a central task and a traditional driver of economic growth.

Through state spending, public investment directly boosts aggregate demand and serves as an effective tool to regulate and stabilise the macroeconomy, maintaining key economic balances, he said.

With its leading role, public investment helps catalyse private and foreign direct investment, creating strong spillover effects, promoting production and business activities, generating jobs and livelihoods, and supporting fast and sustainable growth. It also contributes to developing strategic infrastructure, enhancing national competitiveness, narrowing development gaps and strengthening national defence, security and international integration.

The PM asked ministries, agencies and local governments to focus leadership, resources and efforts on reviewing procedures and addressing bottlenecks hindering project implementation.

The government has taken strong and consistent measures to speed up disbursement, including implementing national target programmes early, organising multiple high-level meetings and issuing a series of resolutions, conclusions and directives, he said.

In 2025 alone, the Government held four conferences on accelerating public investment disbursement, adopted 11 resolutions, issued two conclusions and eight directives and official dispatches, while senior leaders conducted numerous on-site inspections of major and nationally important projects.

By the end of December 2025, public investment disbursement reached more than VND755 trillion (US$30.7 billion), equivalent to 83.7% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister, up 3.4% and VND206.6 trillion in absolute terms from a year earlier.

However, the Prime Minister acknowledged that progress remained slower than expected, noting that disbursing the remaining 16.3% of 2025 funds in January 2026 would be a major challenge. Currently, 22 ministries and agencies and 18 localities have disbursement rates below the national average.

Following the meeting, the Ministry of Finance will formally notify Party committees of units that failed to meet disbursement targets, and the results will be used in reviewing and evaluating officials, he said.

Looking ahead, Vietnam plans to disburse nearly VND995.4 trillion in public investment funds in 2026, up 10.4% from 2025. The Prime Minister urged early allocation and faster implementation from the beginning of the year to help achieve the government’s challenging goal of double-digit economic growth.

He asked participants to analyse shortcomings and propose solutions to address delays, while ensuring the legitimate rights and interests of residents affected by projects, particularly during land clearance and resettlement.

Public investment - key driver for Vietnam’s double-digit growth ambitions

VOV.VN - Public investment is increasingly viewed as a critical lever for Vietnam’s ambition to achieve double-digit economic growth in the coming period, but experts warn that persistent bottlenecks must be removed for it to become an effective growth driver.