The People’s Council of northern Vinh Phuc Province has asked local agencies to carry out land-use inspections following reports of misuse and inefficiency.

Tran Manh Cuong, deputy head of the Planning Section at DoNRE’s Land Management Unit, said: “The main reason was slow site clearance because the land owners hadn’t agreed to levels of compensation.”

Other problems involved lack of cash, changes to construction design and a lack of co-ordination in infrastructure construction, Cuong said.

As of October, there were reportedly 20 industrial parks occupying a 6,000ha area, and 179 projects invested in industrial parks and clusters.

According to the General Department of Land Uses, Vinh Phuc was one of the provinces with the highest number of delayed projects. Of the 32 projects that had not got off the ground, one of the worst offenders was Kim Hoa industrial park, which was established in 1997-1998. After over a decade, the basic infrastructure is still far from completion.

Among four operational industrial parks in the province, Binh Xuyen 1, Khai Quang, Ba Thien 1 and Chan Hung, many registered land lots lacked infrastructure or were using just 50-60 per cent of the space available.

The Land Management Unit also reported a number of land-use violations by enterprises and households. About 29 out of 107 inspected enterprises occupied more land that they should have or had encroached on the transportation corridor. Meanwhile, 54 of these enterprises had also carried out illegal building work or were using land for the wrong purposes.

Cuong said inspections were carried out on projects that had been launched after 2005. He said further inspections would be carried out on projects launched in 1997 or afterwards.

Vinh Phuc is 60km north of Ha Noi.

According to the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it ranks fifth in terms of provinces attracting the most foreign direct investment.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News