Difficulties in progressing 16 projects worth over 99 trillion VND

On March 9, in Can Tho, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment (MPI) Tran Quoc Phuong chaired the 3rd meeting of the Steering Committee for Sustainable Development Projects in the Mekong Delta in response to climate change (Mekong DPO).

Pham Hoang Mai – Head of Foreign Economic Relations Department, MPI said that in July 2023, the Government issued Resolution 108/NQ approving the mobilization of Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds for 16 projects under the Mekong DPO program. The total investment capital for these projects is over 99,133 billion VND (of which domestic counterpart funds are over 30,000 billion VND, and the rest is ODA capital).

Mai cited the fact that until now, all projects have been implemented more slowly than planned. This is because the quality of the project proposals by localities is not high, leading to the need for many adjustments and additional time. At the same time, when the MPI seeks opinions, the agencies are slow to respond; the Ministry of Finance is slow to report to the Prime Minister on the financial issues of the projects; and some specific mechanisms in new road projects approved by the National Assembly also have an impact on the construction progress of the projects…

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said that the Government has made a resolution on mobilizing ODA for 16 Mekong DPO projects; the National Assembly has made a resolution on applying specific mechanisms for some transport projects, in which the localities are the investors of some projects (National Highway 61C, Cua Dai Bridge, Co Chien Bridge 2). These resolutions have overcome legal obstacles to prepare and approve Mekong DPO projects.

However, Phuong admitted that the preparation and approval progress of Mekong DPO projects is still slow compared to the plan. Even some projects are still gathering opinions, or have not reached an agreement on design options, investment scale, financial arrangements… so they don’t have enough basis to report to the MPI to be submitted to the Prime Minister for consideration and approval. Even the Cua Dai and Co Chien 2 bridge projects were proposed to be added by Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, and Tien Giang provinces.

“The common situation of Mekong DPO projects is that they are slow. These are the projects that the Government wants to do, the localities want to have, the sponsors agree to support, but they are slow, I also don’t understand. This is something that myself and Mai (Pham Hoang Mai, Head of Foreign Economic Relations Department – PV) find it difficult to answer to Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, to answer to the Prime Minister. The Minister told me that these projects have been around for 7 years from the idea to now and there has been no progress”, Phuong said.

The leaders of the Ministry of Planning and Investment believe that the legal obstacles to the basic Mekong DPO projects no longer exist. However, the preparation of projects, documents and procedures by localities is not good enough. As a result, projects have to be constantly adjusted, even changed significantly compared to the initial plan, causing delays in time and opportunities.

“Project adjustments are the least desirable thing, unless unavoidable, because each adjustment is almost like starting over from scratch. It not only costs money and time but also opportunities. It’s a pity. Localities, investors need to review them,” Phuong added.

Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong proposed that Mekong Delta localities with related projects need to be more active in completing project procedures and documents, proactively resolving difficulties and obstacles, and timely reporting to higher authorities on issues beyond their authority to resolve. Only then can new projects be approved, implemented, and effectively utilized for each locality and the entire region.