The “reaction” of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue when a member of the National Assembly “begged” to use salary reform to build roads

Continuing the program of the 3rd meeting, after listening to the Government’s submission of the investment policy of the Chau Doc – Can Tho – Soc Trang expressway construction projects (phase 1); Khanh Hoa – Buon Ma Thuot (phase 1); Bien Hoa – Vung Tau (phase 1) and 2 Ring Road 4 in the Hanoi Capital region and Ring 3 in Ho Chi Minh City, the National Assembly deputies conducted group discussions.

Planning traffic projects must have a long-term vision

Speaking at the group, citing data on Vietnam’s competitiveness index, delegate Vu Tien Loc (Hanoi delegation) said that the competitiveness of the Vietnamese economy ranks below 70 out of 140 countries. in the world, but the transport infrastructure ranks more than 100.

“Thus, the quality of our infrastructure and transport facilities is the weakest and bottleneck in the business environment index”, Mr. Loc assessed.

Also according to the Hanoi delegation, Vietnam is among the 30 economies with the worst traffic quality in the world, first of all, the highway system. If compared with surrounding countries, few countries have a low highway length like ours.

Notably, the biggest traffic congestion is in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi itself, the largest economic centers of the country. Therefore, implementing projects in these two bottlenecks, namely the 3rd Ring Road in Hanoi Capital and the 3rd Ring Road in Ho Chi Minh City, is very necessary – according to delegate Vu Tien Loc.

Agreeing on the necessity of the project, Finance Minister Ho Duc Phuc further emphasized that focusing on infrastructure development is one of the three major breakthroughs of the economy, especially roads. Developing a transport system will create a lifeline for the national economy, exploiting the potential for national development and export.

“However, we suggest that the Ministry of Transport when building the route needs to consider long-term planning. But like when we built Road I, from 2010, it will only be until 2020 that the road will be stuck again, so we have to having a long-term vision, spacious design, ensuring the future, but after planning a few years later, it is backward, it is not advisable,” said Minister Ho Duc Phuc.

Also according to the Minister of Finance, the Ministry of Transport must focus on overcoming difficulties, shortcomings, obstacles and bottlenecks for construction and put into use quickly, the effect will be great.

On the funding side, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment have explained to the National Assembly Standing Committee and submitted to the National Assembly, “ensure enough funding for implementation”, Minister Ho Duc Phuc said.

Do not “touch” the source of wage reform to build roads

Regarding investment capital, Secretary of the Bac Ninh Provincial Party Committee, Ms. Dao Hong Lan, said that ensuring the investment structure is the most difficult today, when most projects use a mixed capital structure. (central, local).

To secure capital, Ms. Lan suggested that provinces should be allowed to use the sources of salary reform, institutionalized in the Resolution of the National Assembly so that localities could have grounds for implementation.

Before this proposal, National Assembly Chairwoman Vuong Dinh Hue affirmed that the National Assembly has a Resolution that absolutely must not use salary reform sources for other works, regardless of the reason. Therefore, it is not advisable to use the salary reform source to build a road because it “touches” the Central Resolution on wage reform.

Also according to the National Assembly Chairman, “reform” is not simply an adjustment of the base salary of 7%, but the difference, adjustment of steps, steps, salary coefficients…, so the total amount of money needed for salary reform. pretty huge.

For example, the locality needs 5,000 billion VND for salary reform, the whole term (5 years) will need 25,000 billion VND for this. Not to mention that with each additional year of adjustment, the amount of money needed for wage reform increases even more.

“We have postponed the salary reform for a few years now, and for the past three years, we have not adjusted salaries for civil servants. So we need to spend this money for salary reform, not on other things,” said Mr. President of the National Assembly emphasized.

Regarding the proposal of the Government mechanism to issue bonds to the locality, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue said that the law does not allow it.

“If you take out a loan, you are responsible for repaying it. If other people lend you money to spend, it is not very responsible. If you do it, you can stand out and borrow it. Businesses can still make a few hundred thousand billion more locally. The government doesn’t do it. Just ask for a mechanism and then say we can’t do it, what should we do,” emphasized Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue.