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| Ho Chi Minh City's Ring Road 3 section passing through Dong Nai has been largely completed. (Photo: VNA) |
Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam enters 2026 as the launch year for its 2026–2030 socio-economic development plan and the medium-term public investment blueprint. With double-digit growth targeted for this year and beyond, the National Assembly, Government and Prime Minister Le Minh Hung have designated public investment a critical growth driver.
A recent PM directive set a May 10 deadline for ministries, agencies and localities to complete detailed allocations of the 2026 public investment capital plan. Any entity failing to allocate its assigned capital by that date must file a report with the Ministry of Finance by May 15, with the reason, naming responsible units and individuals, enabling the ministry to propose reallocation under existing rules.
As of late April, ministries, agencies and localities allocated more than 980.55 trillion VND (37.71 billion USD) in detailed 2026 investment plans to specific tasks and projects, according to the MoF’s latest report. Excluding 13.33 trillion VND in additional locally balanced budget capital, the detailed allocation total reached 967.22 trillion VND, or 95.44% of the capital plan assigned by the PM.
Still, 46.22 trillion VND, roughly 4.56% of the PM’s plan, remains unallocated across 14 ministries and agencies and 17 localities, intensifying pressure to meet the year’s full disbursement goal.
Disbursement of public investment capital stood at an estimated 144.28 trillion VND as of April 30, equivalent to just 14.2% of the PM’s assigned plan. That marked a rise of 12.62 trillion VND in absolute terms compared with the same period in 2025, but the disbursement rate was 1.7 percentage point lower.
The finance ministry blamed the shortfall largely on a capital plan that is 22.7% bigger than 2025’s. An extended public holiday in late April also temporarily weighed on construction progress and disbursement activity.
At a recent national conference on speeding up public investment capital allocation and disbursement in 2026, PM Hung sharply criticised 28 ministries and agencies and 18 localities with below-average disbursement rates. He demanded tighter public investment discipline, greater accountability from agency heads, and stressed that all investment and capital-allocation decisions must be subject to cost accounting and efficiency reviews.
To accelerate disbursement, the MoF said ministries, agencies and localities should zero in on tasks and solutions spelt out in the PM’s notice and national conference. Authorities were also urged to let agency heads and local leaders step up to clear obstacles within their authority.
Trinh Duc Trọng, Deputy Director General of the MoF’s Infrastructure Development Department, said the ministry would continue to publicly disclose weekly, monthly, and quarterly disbursement rates for each ministry, agency and locality.
The ministry is also building a KPI-based scorecard to assess public -investment disbursement performance by ministry, agency and locality. It will track project progress and capital allocation bottlenecks to promptly report and propose reallocation plans to competent authorities, aiming to curb wastefulness and ensure funds are put to efficient use, he added./.
