Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI) says it is striving to assist the disbursement of 10 billion USD in 2008, a year-on-year rise of 25 percent.

The ministry said that to reach the goal it plans to hold a dialogue between its leaders and foreign investors in September to help agencies and localities nationwide settle investors’ proposals.

In addition, the MoPI is devising a proposal to speed up the disbursement rate of foreign direct investment (FDI) capital.

The proposal is designed to classify and suggest assistance policies suitable to projects in each locality, with priorities given to key ones that have greater impact on localities and regions.

Foreign Investment Department (FID) Head Phan Huu Thang said that it is not easy to break slow FDI disbursement because of higher infrastructure demands and an unsettled investment environment in the country.

The fast increase in FDI influx in the country with dozens of projects worth billions of USD has put great pressure on infrastructure.

The slow disbursement rate was also attributed to ground clearance. Difficulties during the implementation of projects depend on not only the results of harmonious cooperation between localities and investors but also investors’ capability and other reasons.

The slow implementation pace of the Xuong Rong lake and a city urban centre development project in northern mountainous Thai Nguyen province by the Japanese affiliate IntraVietnam Co. Ltd. is an example of slow FDI disbursement.

Due to difficulties with capital, the investor spent only 5 billion VND for ground clearance since the 100 million USD project launched in August last year.

The Director of the provincial Planning and Investment Service, Nguyen Duc Minh, said Thai Nguyen province will withdraw the investment licence granted to the project if the investor does not settle the ground clearance issue before July 30.

According to a survey of 140 FDI enterprises conducted by the Central Economic Management Research Institute earlier this year, 20 percent said the reason for slow disbursement was due to changes in Vietnam ’s policies.

Seventeen (17) percent said it was due to difficulties in procedures and administration and another 17 percent said it was because the investment environment was not as favourable as they had first thought.

The remaining surveyed candidates said it was due to the holding companies’ change in business strategies.

A total of 5 billion USD in FDI was disbursed in the first half of the year, a year-on-year rise of 37.6 percent.