HÀ NỘI — Despite improvements to the country’s infrastructure in recent years, especially in terms of transport, better quality planning that matches economic demands is still sorely lacking.

Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc made the comment at a meeting held yesterday in Hà Nội to review the progress made in a key resolution by the Party on infrastructure development.

Resolution 13-NQ/TW, passed in January 2012, by the Communist Party’s Central Committee, outlined directions to build a cohesive infrastructure system that would “make Việt Nam a modern, industrialised nation” by 2020. The resolution also marks prioritised resources in four ‘key areas’ – developing transport infrastructure, power supply, irrigation and infrastructure for climate change adaptation.

PM Phúc also noted that shortcomings witnessed in the last five years spurred the need for better institutions and special mechanisms to mobilise resources to implement critical projects in the context of a constrained State budget.

Hence, in the five-year report completed by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI) to be submitted to the Politburo, “new views on infrastructure, considered a ‘bottleneck’ to our current socio-economic development” must be clarified – including Private-Public Partnership (PPP) model as well as Official Development Assistance (ODA).

With the Vietnamese economy having surpassed US$220 billion in GDP, and the public debt kept at 61 per cent (considerably lower than the committed ceiling of 65 per cent), PM Phúc asked agencies to continue to look for appropriate ODA sources as well as Government bonds, project bonds, and international bonds to ‘keep the ball rolling,’ making sure that the country’s development is not be hindered by outdated infrastructure.

“Socialisation in infrastructure development is necessary to bring benefits to the State, the investors, and the people,” PM Phúc said.

To this end, as well as ‘hard infrastructure’, for example, large-scale physical networks of roads and bridges, its soft counterparts such as health and education must also receive significant attention to improve people’s quality of life.

The head of the Government also asked the MoPI to deliver clearer recommendations as well as a detailed list of works to be implemented. — VNS