Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has empowered ministers and chair-people of provincial and municipal People’s Committees to assign contractors to projects having investment capital of less than VND5 billion ($294,000).

The decision was made to speed up the implementation of investment projects in order to prevent economic slowdown.

The PM requested that for urgent projects that serve national interests, security and energy security and have investment of over VND5 billion, ministers and chiefs of government agencies, chair-people of provinces and municipal People’s Committees make a list of such projects, explain their necessity and submit them to the PM for approval and the assigning of a contractor.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment will evaluate the list within 20 days.

In other news, the government has given its permission to the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) to contribute capital to the Marine Commercial JS Bank.

According to a new regulation, state-owned corporations have the right to invest in other fields of business but the investment must be less than 31% of their total capital.

Ngoc Le