VietNamNet Bridge – Twelve universities
in the inner city of Hanoi
have been “ordered” to relocate to new places. This means that the schools will
leave attractively located land plots , considered the “open-cast gold mines”.

The “golden land fund”

The Hanoi School of Public Health’s headquarter

The Hanoi Law
University at No 87
Nguyen Chi Thanh street occupies an area of 5690 square metre. However, the
school will have to move to the suburbs of Hanoi as decided by the Government.

Although
the Ministry of Education and Training announced the relocation plan for the
universities many years ago, the construction of the A lecture hall building of
the Hanoi Law University
is continued.

Not only
the Hanoi Law University,
but a lot of other universitiesoccupying attractive locations in the inner
city, will  have to move to other places.
These include the University
of Civil Engineering,
which covers an area of two hectares at No 55 of Giai Phong Road in Hai Ba
Trung District, the Hanoi School of Public Health which covers an area of
15,600 square metres at No 138 Giang Vo Road.

The
information that many schools will leave their attractively located premises in
the inner city drew the attention of real estate developers, For them, this
will mean  opportunities to develop new
and highly profitable projects So they are all eyeing the lands.

However,
everyone understands that it will be not so easy to get the permission to
develop any projects on the land left by the universities, especially as there
are many unsettled difficulties.

Big worries

The Deputy
Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has instructed the 12 universities to relocate
and 11 other schools to upgrade their facilities. From February to August 2011,
schools will have to report on the relocation plan to the Ministry of Education
and Training. So far no school has reported their plan to the ministry.

The problem
is, according to Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan, that
the budget for building new schools remains very limited. Therefore, the State
cannot afford trillions of dong to buy new land plots for schools. The only
solution is for  schools to sell their
current lands Universities have been given autonomy to decide for themselves
They will either auction the land or partner with private? investors to build
new schools.

“We have
received the proposals of cooperation under the mode of BT (build-transfer),
meaning the partners will own the land areas in the inner city, and in return,
they will give us new schools in the new places,” head of a school revealed.
“This is really an attractive mode of cooperation, but we still need to think
about it. The problem is that the partner requires a cleared site ready for
construction, which we still do not have”.

Other
universities face the same problem. The project to build the national
university on Lang-Hoa Lac Road
has made no progress over the past ten years. The land for the school for
public health has not been cleared for
more than five years. Another school completed the construction plan 5-6
years ago, but the construction is still under way.

T. V