Unlocking Danang’s Potential: Accelerating Public Investment Disbursement and Removing Obstacles

The Danang administration is reviewing completed projects for final inspection and payment processing. They are also expediting ongoing projects, urging contractors to take advantage of favorable weather conditions to accelerate construction progress and ensure timely disbursement.

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This year, the central government has assigned Da Nang to disburse nearly VND7,292 billion. The municipal People’s Council and People’s Committee have promptly allocated 100% of the capital plan assigned by the central government. Right at the beginning of the year, the Da Nang Party Committee organized a conference for key officials to remove obstacles and speed up the disbursement of public investment capital. As of April 30, Da Nang had disbursed VND730 billion, equivalent to 10% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister.

These days, at the construction site of the Lien Chieu Port – Common Infrastructure Project, about 500 officers, workers, and 150 units of heavy equipment are rushing to complete the construction. This project is constructed by a joint venture of Phu Xuan – Dacinco – Truong Xuan, Lung Lo, and Xuan Quang. Currently, the Management Board is well controlling the project progress as committed to the investor, ensuring the disbursement progress of public investment capital.

Da Nang has resolved the obstacle of lacking construction materials to speed up the progress of Lien Chieu Port construction.

Up to now, the common infrastructure project of Lien Chieu Port has reached 40% of the output value, meeting the committed progress. This year, the Lien Chieu Port project needs 1 million cubic meters of rocks. Meanwhile, the city’s stone mines can only meet about 60% of the demand. Therefore, the Management Board has to find sources of materials from neighboring provinces. Da Nang also agreed to increase the mining capacity of local mines, thus overcoming the difficulty of material sources.

“The biggest obstacle of the project is the source of construction materials, including sand and stones. The contractor has also tried to find sources from neighboring provinces. In addition, the city has also agreed to increase the capacity of mines in the city to ensure a sufficient supply of materials for construction as planned,” said Tran Van Chung, Director of the Management Board of Lien Chieu Port Project, Phu Xuan Construction and Consulting Joint Stock Company.

This year, the Da Nang City Traffic Infrastructure Project Management Board was assigned by the municipal People’s Committee to disburse more than VND900 billion of public investment capital. Most of these are projects that have been completed and now need to focus on disbursement and final settlement, so the disbursement pressure is very high. However, the disbursement progress of completed projects depends on other sectors.

According to Mr. Nguyen Minh Huy, Director of the Da Nang City Traffic Infrastructure Project Management Board, realizing the difficulty of this task, the leaders of the Board have discussed solutions and set disbursement targets for each quarter and each month since the beginning of the year.

“The Board is focusing on directing the review of completed projects that can still be accepted for payment to achieve 90% of the total project value as prescribed. In addition, the Board urges projects that are being implemented to take advantage of favorable weather to accelerate construction progress to have disbursement output. It is determined that in the remaining months, especially by June 30, 30% must be disbursed, averaging more than VND100 billion per month,” said Mr. Huy.

Like the Project Management Boards, the districts of Da Nang City are actively removing obstacles and urging the disbursement of public investment capital. Lien Chieu district is one of the two localities with the largest number of public investment projects in Da Nang, with 33 works funded by the city budget and 59 works funded by people’s capital. With a large assigned capital plan, the district has mobilized sectors and mass organizations to join hands in urging people to speed up site clearance progress. The district’s Project Management Board proposed a reasonable internal capital transfer within the district and requested the allocation of people’s capital according to the district’s competence. Thanks to that, in the first quarter of this year, Lien Chieu district disbursed more than VND31 billion in public investment capital, exceeding the assigned target.

Mr. Nguyen Ha Bac, Secretary of the Lien Chieu District Party Committee, said that the achievement of public investment disbursement in the first quarter was due to the removal of obstacles from previous years.

“Drawing lessons from previous years, right from the beginning of this year, the task of disbursing capital for public investment projects was assigned to units under the People’s Committee of the district to build a progress plan that is really close. Especially, the procedures must be built in parallel very closely, classifying groups of works and projects with specific contents to handle capital sources as well as disburse capital to contractors. Consulting units… ensure a well-planned and detailed classification, avoiding the case of waiting for this procedure and that procedure, wasting time,” said Mr. Bac.

Mr. Phung Phu Phong, Director of Da Nang Department of Construction, said that the main reason for the slow appraisal of public investment projects is the slow feedback of appraisal agencies. Secondly, in the process of appraising public investment projects of the Department of Construction, there is a procedure for obtaining opinions related to fire prevention and control and environmental protection. Thirdly, the capacity of consulting units as well as the initiative of investors is still limited. The Department of Construction expects the Project Management Board and investors, from the preparatory stages, to closely coordinate with the Department of Construction and related departments and sectors in obtaining opinions.

“For the list of 40 projects to be completed and 38 projects to be started in 2024, the Department of Construction commits to establishing a group to monitor and coordinate with the management agencies of districts and counties to support and speed up the progress, ensuring the progress assigned by the municipal People’s Committee. That is the commitment of the Department of Construction,” said Mr. Phung Phu Phong.

The VND1,500 billion road project in Da Nang has missed its deadline several times.

Like the Department of Construction, the Da Nang Department of Natural Resources and Environment has also asked the city for permission to establish a task force of about 20 people, including contract laborers. This task force is directly led by the leaders of the Department. The task of this task force is to focus on resolving bottlenecks in site clearance for key and driving projects. The People’s Committee of Da Nang City has also issued a plan to compensate and clear 106 projects in the area in 2024, with compensation scheduled for 2024 and 2025. The city People’s Committee promotes decentralization and authorization to localities to carry out compensation and clearance.

Mr. Nguyen Van Quang, Secretary of the Da Nang Party Committee, requested the Party Committee of the municipal People’s Committee to closely monitor the progress and promptly come up with practical solutions. The most important thing is to organize the implementation of solutions. “It is necessary to assign responsibility to the Party Committee in directing resolutely, substantially, and closely with reality. At the same time, the city must have a specific plan to implement, clearly define the time and responsibility of the Departments, sectors, and Management Boards in implementing the list of works, especially for 40 works that need to be completed and 35 works that will be started in 2024,” Mr. Quang emphasized.