HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has asked the Ministry of Construction to clarify six problems which are of great public concern.

The request was delivered to the ministry yesterday by Minister and head of the Government Office Mai Tiến Dũng. Dũng, also head of the PM’s working group, led a group to inspect the ministry’s implementation of tasks assigned by the Government and the PM.

Dũng relayed PM Phúc’s desire to build a transparent, constructive, action-minded and serving Government which eliminates hindrances to enterprises.

According to the Construction Ministry, from the beginning of 2016 until February 10, 2017, the ministry has been assigned 311 tasks. 233 of these tasks had been fulfilled while 74 are in the process of being completed. Four are overdue.

The first problem that needs clarification relates to building mechanisms. According to Dũng, the Law on Construction in 2014 should be reviewed in terms of its relevance with the Law on Land, Urban Law, Trading Real Estate Law and Public Investment Law.

He asked the ministry to propose changes to the law to the Government and National Assembly.

The PM also urged the Ministry of Construction to submit the amended Decree 59 on construction investment management to the Government.

According to Dũng, ministries, sectors and localities have complained that the disbursement of public investment is slow due to Decree 59.

“Design assessments for multiple-floor buildings is under the management of construction departments, however, regulations force the public and enterprises to apply for documents at the ministry, causing nuisance and waste,” Dũng said.

Explaining slow progress in supplementing and amending the decree, Construction Minister Phạm Hồng Hà said that the decree “asks ministries, sectors and localities to reorganise management boards of projects”. However, there are more than 1,000 Official Development Assistance project management boards nationwide, making this a huge task.

"There are many complications in the decree," he said, adding that changes would be considered and submitted to the Government soon.

The second issue raised during the inspection was planning and management of planning and construction order. This process has had failures resulting in planning breakdown or adjustments.

The PM called on the Construction Minister to clarify the roles of the ministry and localities. Localities can be authorised to issue construction licences but the ministry must supervise construction.

PM Nguyễn Xuân Phúc asked the ministry to prioritise the third issue, which relates to house construction, saying that the ministry should pay attention to houses for low-income people, social beneficiaries and workers at industrial parks and hi-tech zones.

Regarding the fourth issue, Minister and head of the Government Office Mai Tiến Dũng pointed out that the ministry has fixed construction material prices; however, they are adjusted at local levels.

The ministry should reach an agreement with localities to impose the fixed prices and stop investors hiking them, he said.

The Construction Ministry was also asked to study new materials, recycled materials, environmentally-friendly materials and substitute materials used domestically to cut down on the import of construction materials.

The last issue is the ministry’s State-owned enterprise equitisation. The progress has been on schedule; however, the number of equitised firms set to be listed on the stock market is low.

The ministry was requested to speed up equitisation and avoid self interest in the progress.

Construction Minister Phạm Hồng Hà said that the ministry would continue completing mechanisms, work with State and local agencies in construction investment and pay attention to decentralised administration.

“Decentralised administration must be conducted strongly, including assigning tasks to each locality, sector, corporation and group in the construction sector,” Hà said. — VNS