“From now until the end of the year, authorities of districts and
departments in the city will have to reassess all projects” in
accordance with the Law on Public Investment, which will come into force
next January, Director of Department of Planning and Investment Thai
Van Re was quoted by Saigon Times Daily as saying.
Re told a
conference on building the social-economic development plan for
2016-2020 as well as the medium-term plan for public projects in the
same period in Ho Chi Minh City on August 26. Public
projects must be cost-effective, so heads of district governments,
departments and project management units will be held responsible if
they approve projects that lead to debts or shortage of funds for
implementation, Re said. The city now has 1,096 public investment
projects underway and 178 others that have been approved but have yet
received finances, he said.
According to the department, capital
for public investment projects in the 2016-2020 will be disbursed in
order of priority. Capital will be first disbursed for projects due to
be finished before the year’s end, then for those expected for
completion next year, and counterpart capital for ODA (official
development assistance) projects or projects using foreign preferential
loans.
The city has planned to put aside 15 percent of total
capital for public projects in the five-year period to deal with
unexpected situations such as changes of prices, investment for urgent
projects and other issues which may arise, in accordance with the Law on
Public Investment.
HCM City Chairman Le Hoang Quan said the city
welcomes the initiative to make five-year plans for public investment
projects.
He took Hoang Hoa Tham Bridge crossing
the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal for example, saying the project
took 11 years to be finished. Investment approved for the project was 16
billion VND initially but then increased to 156 billion VND when work
started on the bridge.
On August 5, 2014, the Government issued
Directive 23/CT-TTg as guidelines for building medium-term plans for
public investment projects, requiring localities across the country to
evaluate their public investment results in the 2011-2015 period and set
up the plan for the five-year period of 2016-2020.
According to
the directive, localities and departments have to settle all debts
arising from public investment projects by the end of this year and from
next year, they have to strictly follow regulations of the Law on
Public Investment and allow no more debt to arise.-VNA