Once highly anticipated, but up to now, the projects of Tan Hoang Minh Hai Duong Joint Stock Company, Tin Tin Food Company Limited, Hoang Long Steel Joint Stock Company, Vinamit Joint Stock Company, and Hai Duong High-Tech Garment Joint Stock Company are still heartbreaking wastelands.
In early 2022, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment sent an official dispatch to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the General Department of Land Management, and the Provincial People's Committee regarding the public disclosure of land violations by 3 enterprises in the province.
Accordingly, in 2021, the department inspected and reviewed the compliance with land laws of 28 enterprises. As a result, 3 enterprises that violated the law had to be made public, namely Tin Tin Food Company Limited, Hoang Long Steel Joint Stock Company, and Vinamit Joint Stock Company, because these enterprises left the land fallow and did not implement projects, in which Vinamit's project "topped the list".
In 2011, at the newly cleared land of 35 hectares, located on the border between Ai Quoc and Nam Dong wards (Hai Duong city), the groundbreaking ceremony of the Processing Factory - General warehouse for preserving vegetables, tubers and fruits of Vinamit Joint Stock Company took place.
According to publicly announced information, this Processing Factory - General warehouse for preserving vegetables, tubers and fruits has a scale of processing agricultural products of 20.5 tons/day, producing bottled juice of 500 liters/hour, building a 30-ton/day freezer, and a 4,000-ton/year freezer. In addition, a model to introduce agricultural product processes has been built here with an area of nearly 8.5 hectares...
The total investment of the project is more than 284 billion VND, expected to create stable jobs for 300 workers and create livelihoods to escape poverty for thousands of local farming households.
However, 11 years after handing over the land to Vinamit, the 35-hectare land is now still a grassy field surrounded by walls. The only visible part of the project is two warehouses of about 4,000 square meters, which have been abandoned for many years. Seeing the abandoned land with overgrown grass, some people bought herds of buffalo and cows and herded them onto the land to graze.
Mr. Doan Van Tich in Vu Xa residential area, Ai Quoc ward, indignantly said: “This vast field of rice and honey has been abandoned for more than ten years while the people have nothing left to cultivate and have to work for hire. Our wish is to return this land to the people for cultivation.”
To facilitate businesses, from January 2011 to June 2013, the province allowed investors to extend the project implementation period twice. However, since then, the project has been “stuck in place” for a series of reasons such as economic recession, financial difficulties, etc.
In August 2017, the Provincial People's Committee announced its policy to terminate the Vinamit project ahead of schedule and revoke the granted investment certificates.
In March 2018, Vinamit again submitted a document requesting an extension of the completion time by 24 months, but the Provincial People's Committee did not approve.
Regarding this project, Mr. Dinh Duy Do, Vice Chairman of Ai Quoc Ward People's Committee said: "When implemented, the project received high approval from the people. They wanted to have a fruit processing factory to increase the value of agricultural products, contributing to the economic development of the locality."
Unable to extend the deadline, in July 2018, Vinamit Joint Stock Company requested permission to establish a detailed plan for the construction of a commercial, service and residential area at a scale of 1/500 on the land area of the Vinamit project.
With this proposal, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has a document stating: The land use planning until 2020 of the province and Hai Duong city still continues to identify this as non-agricultural production land. The proposal to adjust the project and establish a detailed plan to build the Vinamit land into a commercial service area and residential area is not consistent with the approved land use planning and plan.
Similarly, the project of the silicon pig iron and hot rolled steel factory of Hoang Long Steel Joint Stock Company has left 18,200m2 of land in Vinh Hung commune (Binh Giang) fallow, and the project has not been implemented for many years.
This company was established in late 2013, located in Ngoc Mai village, Hung Thinh commune (now Vinh Hung commune), Binh Giang district. When it was first established, the company had a charter capital of 50 billion VND.
The entire basic construction works, houses, structures, infrastructure attached to the land leased for annual payment and other assets attached to the land plot with an area of 18,200 m2 in Vinh Hung commune (Binh Giang) and Luong Dien commune (Cam Giang) have been mortgaged at the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development (BIDV). The total outstanding debt of Hoang Long Company as of May 31, 2022 is nearly 232.5 billion VND. Of which, the principal debt is more than 135.3 billion VND, the interest debt and overdue penalty fee is 97 billion VND. It is known that in the middle of this year, Hoang Long Company had its debt seized by BIDV.
On September 25, as a tenant, the reporter “witnessed” the entire project area. According to the security guard, the factory has been rented by the company as a scrap warehouse for many years, and the tenant has only moved out about 2 months ago.
Third on the list of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment is the Project of a facility producing drinking water from agricultural products and carbonated water of Tin Tin Food Company Limited. The project has left over 15,000m2 of land in Hoang Dieu Industrial Park, Hoang Dieu Commune (Gia Loc) fallow since 2015. The constructions on the project land have now seriously degraded, the land is abandoned. Currently, the agencies of the commune, district, and province cannot even contact the investor to work.
Having hoped that the project would bring jobs to the people and create motivation for local development, both the government and the people of Cao Thang and Tu Cuong communes of Thanh Mien district are now disappointed because the Garment and Handbag Factory Project does not know when it will be operational.
On January 10, 2017, the Provincial People's Committee issued an investment policy decision, allowing YMSA Co. Ltd. (Korea) to implement the Garment and Handbag Factory Project in Cao Thang Industrial Park (Thanh Mien). The project covers an area of about 41 hectares located in Cao Thang and Tu Cuong communes, of which Cao Thang commune covers about 36 hectares. The total investment capital of the project is up to VND 1,056 billion, the operation period is 50 years from the date of the investment policy decision. The representative is Mr. Ki-Hak-Sung, Korean nationality. The project has a scale of 8.5 million textile products, 500,000 handbags/year, creating jobs for 10,000 workers.
The Provincial People's Committee requested YMSA Co. Ltd. to implement the construction, complete and put the entire project into operation within 60 months. On March 3, 2017, YMSA Co. Ltd. established Hai Duong High-Tech Garment Company Limited, owned by YMSA Co. Ltd.
18,200 m2, no project implementation
More than 15,000 m2 of wasteland, inactive for many years
349,616 m2, no project implementation
Project of Hai Duong High-tech Garment Company Limited (formerly YMSA Company Limited)
about 410,000 m2, slow project implementation
As a 100% foreign direct investment project, the Provincial People's Committee has given the investor many incentives in terms of corporate income tax, land rent, etc. People in Tu Cuong and Cao Thang communes also quickly agreed and handed over the land.
But from 2017 to now, this project has had 2 adjustments to its investment policy and 6 adjustments to its business registration certificate. After many changes, the project from a foreign-invested project has become a domestic-invested project (currently the project investor has been transferred to a new enterprise with the representative being Mr. Bui Van Khuynh, located in Thanh Ha district). Hai Duong High-Tech Garment Company Limited (project investor) has also changed its type to Hai Duong High-Tech Garment Joint Stock Company. Only the project remains inactive.
Mr. Tran Manh Nhuong, Chairman of Cao Thang Commune People's Committee, said: "The project was implemented by the enterprise since 2018, but up to now, on the land reserved for the project, the enterprise has only built a surrounding wall, a service road, and a connecting road to National Highway 38B."
There are only 3 months left until the project completion deadline, but up to now, the project to invest in a wooden furniture factory with an area of nearly 10 hectares in the Ba Hang Industrial Park (Hai Duong City) of Tan Hoang Minh Hai Duong Joint Stock Company has only built a fence surrounding the project, inside the grass grows as high as a person's head, there has been no investment and construction activities. With the current reality, people are worried that there will be a second Vinamit project in this area.
This project was approved by the Provincial People's Committee in early April 2019. The project has a total investment capital of more than VND 2,391 billion. At the time of the investment decision, this was the domestic production project with the largest initial investment capital in the province in many years.
According to the plan, the investor will import modern machinery, equipment and technology from Europe and aim to build a wooden furniture project in Hai Duong with the largest and most modern scale in Southeast Asia. The project's goal is to produce wooden furniture with an annual scale of 60,000 wooden cabinets, 300,000 m3 of wooden flooring, 50,000 wooden doors and process 10,000 m3 of wood for export. The enterprise is expected to contribute tens of billions of VND to the state budget each year. The People's Committee of Hai Duong City has enforced land recovery from dozens of households to have clean land to hand over to the enterprise since December 2019. Then, in June 2020, the Provincial People's Committee issued a decision on land recovery and leased to Tan Hoang Minh Hai Duong Joint Stock Company to implement the project. According to the required schedule, the investor must complete construction and put the project into operation within 36 months from the date the Provincial People's Committee decides on the investment policy.
To avoid a second Vinamit project, on March 5, 2021, the People's Committee of Hai Duong City reported to the Provincial People's Committee on the investor's project implementation. To strictly implement the provisions of the law on land and the decision of the Provincial People's Committee, the People's Committee of Hai Duong City requested Tan Hoang Minh Hai Duong Joint Stock Company to immediately implement infrastructure investment to implement the project and commit to the Provincial People's Committee and Hai Duong City People's Committee on the progress of the project implementation. Otherwise, the People's Committee of Hai Duong City requested the Provincial People's Committee to reclaim this land and call for investment in a new project according to regulations. But up to now, it is the end of September but the project is still "stuck in place".
In recent years, many projects in the province have been "inactive" as above, leading to waste of land resources and causing resentment among the people.
Content:MAI LIEN - THANH HOA - NGUYEN LAN
Graphics:HA KIEN
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