The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) plans to focus on health, public investment and human resource development in its activities in Vietnam in fiscal year 2021, which began on April 1, JICA's chief representative in Vietnam Shimizu Akira has confirmed.

The Minister of Transport has issued Directive 06/CT-BGTVT on speeding up public investment disbursement in 2021 to successfully realise the socio-economic plan and State budget estimate for the year.

The 57th meeting of the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee was wrapped up on June 15 after one and a half days of sitting.

The disbursed amount of public investment funded by official development assistance (ODA) in localities in the first five months of this year stood at only over VND1.1 trillion (US$47.9 million), equivalent to just 1.73% of the year’s target, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

Ho Chi Minh City targets achieving a 95% or higher rate for disbursement of public spending this year.

Vietnam plans to outlay VND2.87 quadrillion (US$124.5 billion) on public investment in the 2021-2025 period, up VND120 trillion compared to the previous estimate.

The disbursement of public investment sourced from the State budget in April was estimated at VND30.4 trillion (US$1.32 billion), a year-on-year surge of 23.9%, and reaching the highest monthly level since 2017, according to the General Statistics Office.

Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Vuong Dinh Hue had a working session with the parliament’s Committee for Financial and Budgetary Affairs in Hanoi on April 22, highlighting the committee’s significant contributions to the success of the 14th NA.

The Government needs to immediately start working to promote progress and results it has achieved, said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh while chairing a Government meeting on April 15, the first since new Cabinet members were elected at the 11th session of the 14th National Assembly earlier this month.

The Vietnamese economy continues to face many difficulties in the following quarters and the target of a 6.5% growth rate this year will be a great challenge as the global economy is still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, head of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Thi Huong has stated.