Saying No to Unimplemented Projects of Farm Land

Mr Pham Si Liem, Deputy Chairman of the Federation of Civil Engineering Associations (VFCEA) said: First of all, we should say frankly that unimplemented projects have troubled people for many years. People have continuously complained, but not many provinces could do as Long An and Tay Ninh did. Back to 2006, Vietnam had a national-wide review of unimplemented projects, many resources were exploited, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment directed the supervision in 15 major provinces, although several results were obtained, unimplemented projects have been existing till now. Recently Hanoi has promised to confiscate violating projects, but solutions are still unknown. Unimplemented projects are existing not only in Hanoi, but also in many other provinces, therefore, with the solutions of Long An and Tay Ninh provinces, a “large road” has been open to people in provinces with unimplemented projects if other provinces do after those examples.

 

Mr Nguyen Tri Ngoc, Director of Cultivation Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: According to statistics by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as well as our practical surveys, the coverage rate of industrial zones in many provinces is even lower than 50 percent, which means land is planned and handed for project owners but then is kept unused, while farmers do not have land or be unsecured to invest for a long term because of projects “hanging” over their heads. The problem is that, while Long An, Tay Ninh provinces are striving to eliminate unimplemented projects, many other provinces keep applying for the conversion of rice land into non-agricultural one, including establishing industrial zones. The Government will certainly consider over each specific project to minimize unimplemented ones, especially with land for two crops of rice…

 

Mr Pham Si Liem: Because this is a multi-series story, reasons are carefully analysed, concentrating on problems such as poor quality and impractical planning, without the consideration of people’s opinion; projects of land speculation; consequences of economic difficulties…

 

In planning we have the hierarchy, but the management capacity of provinces is uneven and provinces with weak one have to pay a high price. Entrusted with equal rights, provinces are racing to establish industrial zones, appeal for investment in order to restructure the local economy quickly and have high GDP growth rate. Previously, the Government supervised to reveal that 31 provinces offered investors favourable conditions that exceeded overall schemes. Despite those favourable conditions, many industrial zones are still abandoned because industrial zones cannot be established everywhere, their constructions must depend on infrastructure and many other socio-economic factors.

 

However, if for a long time industrial zones still have projects, golf courses do not have any. It was not until 2009, when the issue was quite controversial in the public, golf courses started to be planned all over the country. It does not need to mention about golf courses in sand, midlands or mountainous areas, however project owners seem to like to construct golf courses in agricultural land. Even right in Hanoi, several golf courses in Dong Anh, Thay Pagoda… have taken a significant area of rice land.

 

Mr Nguyen Tri Ngoc: Planning in only one problem, in my opinion, the main problems are organisation and implementation. We still do not have a sanction strong enough to handle violating cases.

 

Mr Pham Si Liem: I do not dare to say about all projects, but in fact in many projects, if investors want to receive a project, they have to give “grease” money. As a result, when receiving their money, authorities cannot recover land soon even when knowing that the project is implemented inconsistently with the Law on land.

If other provinces want to implement what Long An and Tay Ninh did, firstly they have to concentrate on well recovering projects violating the Law on land. In provinces that conduct the task perfunctorily, provinces will be supervised and be fined by the Primary Minister. After that, authorities at all levels have detailed and transparent guide to handle with recovered land, accordingly which land will be used for infrastructure, which land will be kept for investment, which land will be returned for agricultural aims.

 

For example, related to rice land, the first type is unimplemented projects in which people still somehow remain to live and produce there such as in Long An, Tay Ninh. The second type is unimplemented projects in which people receive compensation and resettle elsewhere. According to me, if recovered land belongs to the second type, we should organise bidding to find out competent agricultural investors, in order to gather land and produce in a larger scale instead of dividing into scattered pieces as before.

 

Mr Nguyen Tri Ngoc: According to regulations, project owners have to make commitments about timeliness of implementation; accordingly, after 6 months or a year, if a project is not implemented, the State will confiscate unused land. That means law scheme is handy, however local authorities must handle with violations more strongly and do not solve problems solely based on relations. They should base on Law on land, Law on urban planning, as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; the Ministry of Construction should participate in supervision activities. In order to ensure food security in the long run, in the task of eliminating unimplemented projects, it is a priority to give back land for farmers to grow rice.

 

On our side, we will give leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development advice related to mechanism and policies, helping to praise and public solutions of Long An and Tay Ninh. Besides that, we will seriously implement the decree on management and exploit of rice land (effective from July, 2012).