HÀ NỘI — More than VNĐ360 trillion (US$13.7 billion) of public investment has yet been disbursed this year, putting heavy pressure to accelerate spending in the remaining months, the Ministry of Finance has said.

The ministry’s statistics showed that as of the end of November, public investment disbursement reached VNĐ553.25 trillion, or 60.6 per cent of the Prime Minister’s assigned plan, 2.4 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

The disbursement results are positive despite the impacts of natural disasters, storms and floods, the ministry said. Still, greater efforts are needed to achieve the Government’s target of the disbursement rate at 100 per cent while the remaining amount to be disbursed is large.

Performance across ministries and localities remains uneven, according to the finance ministry. By the end of November, only 12 central agencies and 20 provinces and cities had disbursement rates at or above the national average.

Provinces with low disbursement rates include Tuyên Quang, Sơn La, Cần Thơ, Vĩnh Long, Quảng Tri, Đắk Lắk, Lâm Đồng, Khánh Hòa, Cao Bằng, Đà Nẵng, An Giang and Hưng Yên.

To speed up the public investment disbursement, the Ministry of Finance urged ministries and localities to focus on resolving bottlenecks related to natural disasters, administrative restructuring, legal frameworks and construction material shortages. — VNS