Proposing the Prime Minister to decide on investment policies for public projects under 30,000 billion VND

On the morning of October 29, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, authorized by the Prime Minister, submitted to the National Assembly the draft Law on Public Investment (amended).

According to Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, this amendment to the Law on Public Investment increases decentralization and delegation of power, avoiding creating a mechanism of asking and giving and shirking responsibility.

One of the new points in this amendment is that the Government proposes that the Prime Minister will decide on investment policies for group A projects from VND10,000 billion to VND30,000 billion, instead of the National Assembly as in the current law.

The head of a ministry or central agency is authorized to decide on investment policies for group A projects under VND 10,000 billion managed by that agency or organization.

The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee is expected to decide on investment policies for group B and C projects managed by the locality.

Corresponding to the above authority is the increase in capital scale of national important projects, groups A, B and C. In which, the capital criteria to determine national important projects are increased 3 times. The capital criteria for group A, B, C projects are increased 2 times compared to current regulations.

Specifically, the scale of public investment capital for important national projects increased from VND10,000 billion to VND30,000 billion.

Group A projects in the fields of transportation (seaports, railways), electricity, oil and gas exploitation... capital scale increased from 2,300 billion to 4,600 billion VND.

The scale of Group A projects in the field of irrigation and water supply and drainage increased from 1,500 billion to 3,000 billion VND...

Upgrading the scale of group B and group C projects is applied similarly to group A projects.

According to the 2019 Law on Public Investment, Group A, B, and C projects are classified according to their importance, total investment, and specific sectors. Group C has an investment of up to VND120 billion, Group B has an investment of up to VND2,300 billion, and Group A is projects in a number of sectors with an investment capital of over VND2,300 billion.

Current law stipulates that the Provincial People's Council decides on the policy for Group A projects, and the People's Councils at all levels decide on the investment policy for Group B and Group C projects managed by the locality.

People's Committees at all levels (including provincial level) decide on investment policies for group B and group C projects when authorized by the People's Council.

Giving the reason for this proposal, according to Minister Dung, the scale of public investment capital for important national projects, groups A, B and C, has been maintained since 2014. Meanwhile, over the past 20 years, the GDP scale has increased about 2.5 times, reaching over 11.3 million billion VND. Total budget expenditure has also increased 2.9 times, to nearly 2.3 million billion VND.

Other factors such as price levels, labor costs, construction investment standards... have increased significantly compared to the previous period.

The draft law also adds provisions on decentralization of authority to extend the time for capital allocation for public investment projects. Accordingly, for Group A projects under VND10,000 billion, Group B and C projects, the maximum capital allocation period is 1 year. Group A projects worth VND10,000-30,000 billion, the capital allocation period is no more than 2 years. In addition to the above time, the Prime Minister decides to extend the time for central budget capital allocation.

Reviewing this content, Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh said that decentralizing the decision on investment policies for groups B and C managed by localities to People's Committees at all levels is a "major change". Because according to current law, the People's Council decides on investment policies, and the People's Committee at the same level decides on project investment. Mr. Manh said this is a measure to control power and limit abuse of power.

Therefore, with the change in decentralization in the draft law on local public investment projects, the Finance and Budget Committee proposes that the provincial People's Council decides on the investment policy for group A projects, while the People's Committee decides on investment for group B and C projects.

In addition, at the district level, the appraisal agency recommends that the People's Council at this level be the agency deciding on investment policies for group B projects, while group C is decided by the district People's Committee.

Regarding increasing the scale of public investment projects, Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh said that the adjustment needs to be calculated according to a unified ratio between project types.

Therefore, the appraisal agency proposed to consider increasing the capital scale of project groups compared to current regulations to match GDP growth, project management capacity of ministries, branches, localities and the national construction price index issued over the years.