The Committee on Science, Technology and Environment reviews the Government's report on the implementation of the National Assembly's Resolutions on changing forest use purposes.

Member of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy chaired the meeting.

Reporting at the meeting, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Hoang Hiep said that the Song Than reservoir project (Ninh Thuan province) was decided by the National Assembly to change the purpose of forest use to another purpose in Resolution No. 135/2020/QH14 with a total area of ​​431.76 hectares (including: 333.98 hectares of natural forest and 64.19 hectares of planted forest).

The total area of ​​replacement forestation is 1,066.13 hectares. The project has paid more than VND 141.172 billion to the Ninh Thuan Provincial Forest Protection and Development Fund. By 2022, the total area of ​​replacement forestation of the project from the above funding source will be 1,543.03 hectares (exceeding the regulation by 476.9 hectares).

Regarding the Ban Mong reservoir project located in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep said that the National Assembly decided to change the purpose of forest use for this project in Resolution No. 135/2020/QH14 with a total area of ​​1,131.22 hectares. Of which, Thanh Hoa is 586.45 hectares (including 523.3 hectares of natural forest and 54.15 hectares of planted forest); Nghe An is 544.77 hectares (including 130.25 hectares of natural forest and 4,141.52 hectares of planted forest).

The total area of ​​replacement forestation when converting forest use to other purposes to implement the project is 2,456.32 hectares. However, according to the implementation results report, Thanh Hoa has not yet implemented replacement forestation because the forest use purpose has not been changed and the project owner has not yet allocated funds to fulfill the obligation to plant replacement forests.

In Nghe An, the project investor has only planted 233.36 hectares (28.98% of the total area). The project implementation has basically completed 8 pumping stations downstream of Hieu River, the construction of the main project has reached about 96%; compensation and site clearance work still faces many obstacles, many households have not been relocated.

After analyzing the difficulties and obstacles in implementing these two projects, Deputy Minister Nguyen Hoang Hiep proposed that the National Assembly direct the strengthening of supervision over the implementation of the projects as well as the conversion of forest use purposes and replacement forest planting for the forest area converted to implement the two projects.

Regarding the implementation of the Ka Pet reservoir project (Ham Thuan Nam district, Binh Thuan province), Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said that the investment policy of this project was approved by the National Assembly in Resolution No. 93/2019/QH14 and the investment policy was adjusted in Section 5 of Resolution No. 101/2023/QH15. The project's objective is to provide irrigation water for agricultural production; supply raw water for industrial parks and people's daily life...

The project has a total investment of VND 874,089 billion with a total land use area of ​​697.73 hectares. Of which, the total area to be reforested for the project is 1,875 hectares. According to the report of the People's Committee of Binh Thuan province, completing the project on time according to the National Assembly's Resolution is very difficult.

Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong also pointed out the responsibilities of relevant organizations and individuals when the project was behind schedule and slow to implement; proposed solutions such as: assigning the Government to continue directing the People's Committee of Binh Thuan province to urgently speed up the project's progress, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to closely coordinate with Binh Thuan province to complete the environmental impact assessment report and the project's feasibility study report in accordance with regulations...

At the meeting, delegates listened to Standing Member of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Nguyen Ngoc Son present a preliminary review report on these contents.

In particular, the Song Than reservoir project has been basically completed (project tasks on construction of headworks, resettlement, and site clearance have been basically completed); the task of reforestation according to Resolution 135/2020/QH14 has been completed (exceeding 44.73% of the requirement); if sufficient capital of 68,327 billion VND is allocated, the project can be completed on schedule.

For the Ban Mong reservoir project, the capital allocation was insufficient and intermittent, leading to price slippage, changes in economic and technical norms for site clearance, and replacement forest planting prices, which increased the total investment of the project. Project implementation was slow. The implementation of forest use conversion and replacement forest planting did not meet the requirements of Resolution 135/2020/QH14. The People's Committees of Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces were not yet close and determined in directing the implementation of the project components.

Regarding the Ka Pet reservoir project, the preliminary review report of the Committee for Science, Technology and Environment pointed out that the direction and preparation for project implementation were not drastic, slow and lacked close supervision. In particular, the stages of site clearance compensation, project investment approval, and environmental impact assessment report preparation were slow; the capacity of the assigned units did not meet quality requirements, and many practical problems arose.

At the meeting, Committee members, experts and scientists discussed and exchanged solutions to facilitate the conversion of forest use purposes in accordance with regulations to speed up the progress of three reservoir projects.

Concluding the meeting, Chairman of the Committee on Science, Technology and Environment Le Quang Huy said that the Committee fully received and recorded opinions related to the implementation of the National Assembly's Resolutions to complete the verification report on this content, before having an official report to submit to the National Assembly at the upcoming 7th Session.