Under the national golf course development
plan to 2020, HCM City has granted investment licenses to five golf course
projects, but four of them have not been implemented.

Of the
five projects, only the 300-ha Lam Vien golf course in District 9 has been put
into operation, Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper reported.

The four
other projects are the 139-ha An Phu golf course in District 2, the 200-ha GS
golf course in Cu Chi District, the 157-ha Tan Son Nhat airport golf course
project in Tan Binh District and the 300-ha Sing Viet project in Binh Chanh
District.

After
nearly 10 years since it received its investment license, the 139-ha An Phu golf
course project of the Sai Gon Investment and Development Joint Stock Co (SDI)
has completed only 109 ha of 139 ha of land compensation, according to the
latest report of the City People’s Committee.

Under
the approval of land compensation in 2003, the compensation price for
agricultural land at the An Phu golf course project was VND150,000-200,000 a
sq.m.

But
after several complaints from affected households, the SDI agreed to increase
the price to VND870,000 a sq.m, according to the District 2 Land Compensation
Board.

Speaking
with Dau Tu, a resident whose land is located in the golf-course project said
this price was still lower, compared to the compensation prices of VND1.5
million for each sq.m of several public projects in District 2.

Many
households affected by the project have sent their complaints to agencies.

The HCM
City People’s Court has cancelled several administrative decisions of District 2
because their regulations on land compensation for the project did not follow
the law.

Similarly, the Sing Viet golf course project of Sing Viet Urban Ltd Co in the
Sing Viet Urban Area in Le Minh Xuan Commune, which received an investment
licence in 1996, has not completed land compensation.

The Binh
Chanh District has given compensation to 303 households whose agricultural land
was affected by the Sing Viet golf course project.

Of that
figure, 213 households received compensation with a total amount of VND318
billion; the remaining 90 households have not agreed with the compensation
policies.

Nguyen
Van Hong, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and
Environment, said the city People’s Committee asked the Department of Planning
and Investment to review the capacity of the investor of the Sing Viet golf
course project and the Sing Viet Urban Area.

“If the
investor cannot guarantee progress of these projects outlined in their licences,
then the licences will be revoked,” Hong said.

The city
People’s Committee has recently ordered that districts, departments and agencies
pay special attention to golf course projects and require investors to ensure
the implementation progress of their projects in accordance with the
requirements of their investment licences.

Investors who violate the implementation progress would be revoked land and
investment licences, according to the city’s People’s Committee.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News