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Finance Minister Ngo Van Tuan said the laws on public investment, construction, and procurement will be reviewed and amended to address shortcomings, particularly prolonged procedures that can last six months to one year.
On the afternoon of April 21, the National Assembly discussed in plenary the mid-term public investment plan for 2026–2030, the five-year financial plan, debt repayment, and the approval of the state budget settlement for 2024.
Representative Nguyen Truc Son (Vinh Long) said that adjusting planning and identifying investment priority areas is necessary, but updates should remain flexible and aligned with practical development needs, especially for inter-regional projects and national key projects.
He proposed that the government promptly complete the project list in the mid-term public investment plan. According to the scrutiny report, only about 27% of projects are specifically identified, while 73% have not yet been listed, implying a very large capital scale.
Son warned that if the list is not clarified soon, localities will face difficulties preparing investments, which could affect disbursement progress. He said the 2026 target of 95% disbursement would be hard to achieve.
He also noted that the investment scale for the next period is very large, about 8.2 million trillion dong, sharply higher than the previous period. Implementing many projects simultaneously could pressure prices of construction materials and construction services.
To mitigate this risk, Son proposed measures to regulate material supply, including establishing a management mechanism and reasonably exploiting stone mines to avoid shortages and sudden price increases that could disrupt project timelines.
For ODA projects, he proposed harmonizing domestic and foreign donor procedures to shorten preparation and disbursement times and avoid delays seen in the previous period.
Representative Le Huu Tri (Khanh Hoa) proposed that the government continue reviewing and decisively removing projects that are not truly necessary, not urgent, low in effectiveness, or lacking completed investment procedures. He said resources should be prioritized for key, far-reaching projects that can drive rapid and sustainable growth.
Tri called for a “revolution” in public investment governance to eliminate the “give-and-take” mechanism entirely. He warned that if fundamental thinking and approaches do not change, the risk of public debt becoming a “honey trap” with corruption could persist.
On reducing the number of projects, Tri said the specific percentage (30% or 40%) is less important than real efficiency. “Every dong of public investment must deliver clear socio-economic benefits. Projects without clear objectives or with low efficiency must be cut,” he said, adding that personal responsibility should be clearly defined for proposing and deciding investment policies.
He also warned against approving inefficient projects at any cost to growth. Despite calls to tighten discipline and strengthen audits, he said implementation has not fully met expectations, contributing to overspending, delays, and low disbursement.
Tri raised concerns about leakage and corruption in survey, design, budgeting, and construction stages, where “price gouging” and inflated quantities may occur. He said early and remote supervision is needed to prevent legal gaps and strengthen accountability.
“We cannot wait for violations to occur before inspecting and handling them, because that wastes personnel and resources and cannot cover all projects,” Tri said.
In response to deputies’ comments, Finance Minister Ngo Van Tuan emphasized that given very large development investment needs, the priority is to ensure revenue. He said tax policy should be reviewed to be simple, understandable, easy to implement, easy to audit, and transparent, while minimizing administrative costs for tax authorities and compliance costs for taxpayers.
He said policy flexibility is crucial to respond to fluctuations, citing the 2021–2025 period when the National Assembly approved tax and fee reductions and relaxations totaling nearly 800 trillion dong to support people and businesses.
On expenditure, the minister said current expenditures are expected to fall by about 4–6% of total spending while still ensuring essential tasks including defense, security, social welfare, education, health, and innovation.
He added that the government will push for further savings, aiming to cut about 5% of current expenditures to create more resources for development investment.
For investment expenditure, Tuấn said the total projected for the next phase is about 8.2 million trillion dong. He stressed the need to improve efficiency, including reducing the ICOR coefficient through procedural reforms and shortening project preparation and implementation times.
He reiterated that laws related to public investment, construction, and procurement will be reviewed and amended to address shortcomings, especially the six-month to one-year prolongation of procedures.
Central budget funds, he said, will prioritize key and urgent projects and strategic infrastructure including transport, logistics, and green energy. For local funds, the principle is “locality decides, localities implement, localities bear responsibility,” together with enhanced oversight and accountability of leaders throughout the project lifecycle.
“Our aim is to select high-impact projects, implement them quickly, put them into operation, and continue to rebuild productive capacity for development,” Tuấn emphasized.
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