Bad management turns IPs into wastelands

Quang Chau IP remains vacant

High-tech park left empty

A large amount of fertile agricultural land was allocated to a Taiwanese company to carry out a project which includes an industrial park, urban area and golf course, but much of it remains unused.

The 960ha plot of land was allocated to Foxconn Technology Group, who were to use 433ha of it for a high tech industrial park, named Van Trung. In 2008 the provincial People's Committee handed over 230ha and the company began site clearance on 145ha. But the company delayed the project and this land remains a huge plot of empty space.

About 5km away from Van Trung is Quang Chau Industrial Park. In 2005 Sai Gon-Bac Giang Industrial Park Joint Stock Company was licenced to build Quang Chau IP on a 426ha site.

By the end of last year, only 92ha had been cleared and just over 25ha had been leased to five companies.

Industrial parks continue to be licensed

Even though projects like these are left unused, Bac Giang has licensed two more IPs, namely Song Khe-Noi Hoang IP and Viet Han IP covering a combined area of just over 260ha.

The majority of Song Khe-Noi Hoang remains empty and Viet Han project has yet to break ground.

Bui Van Hai, chairman of the Bac Giang People’s Committee, said the committee decided to revoke licence for the Viet Han IP project.

Currently, Bac Giang has five IPs covering a total area about 1,209ha. The average occupancy rate is only 14 per cent. Dinh Tram IP, built in 2003, has the highest occupancy rate. Nevertheless, according to the local Department of Natural Resources and Environment, most of the business in the Dinh Tram IP is small-scaled, making limited contribution to the state budget.

From 2006 to 2010, IPs in the province contributed only VND15 billion ($721,153) to the state budget.

The provincial Council’s People attributed this to lax management by the local People’s Committee, leading to hundreds of hectares of land left empty, even though relocation compensation has already been paid.

Still, the committee continues to allocate large areas of land to investors without due consideration for their capacity to complete the project.