Central Vietnam seeks solutions for large-scale projects across sectors

About 10 major projects are currently facing impediments in land procedures in Quang Nam province. Among these, BRG Group’s five major projects on commerce, services, resorts, entertainment, and sports with a total area of over 369 hectares are stuck.

Meanwhile, the PPC An Thinh international resort complex of Nam Hoi An International JSC, valued at VND4.3 trillion ($187 million), and the East Quang Nam high-tech agricultural park of privately-held T&T Group, valued at VND3.3 trillion ($143.48 million), are confronted with similar issues.

Le Tri Thanh, Chairman of Quang Nam People’s Committee, directed departments and localities to co-ordinate with businesses to solve issues, calling on people to shortly hand over ground for project implementation.

According to Thanh, in addition to building a comprehensive transport and infrastructure system, the committee has also built resettlement areas, besides ensuring the rights of people in the project sites. “When the projects are finished, they will have great impacts on local economic development, job creation, revenue generation, and social income, making positive contributions to restructuring the service sector in Quang Nam,” said Thanh.

According to Huynh Lien Phuong, deputy director of Danang Investment Promotion Agency, the city is focusing on attracting investors and creating favourable conditions for them to expedite large-scale projects such as high-rise apartment complexes, commercial and financial centres, and entertainment and casino venues.

In particular, the project on building a financial centre along Vo Van Kiet street in the central city with many attached areas such as a commercial centre, an office space, and a hotel is expected to attract many international financial institutions.

Phuong said that the agency is co-ordinating with relevant agencies to accelerate preparations for the Spring Conference 2020 with Danang’s leaders and the community of domestic and foreign investors, aiming at luring in 22 projects with the total investment of $1.7 billion.

Huynh Duc Tho, Chairman of Danang People’s Committee, said that a large number of projects is getting stuck in the legal setup with problems related to land violations and overlaps, as well as inadequacies between relevant laws on investment procedures, land, construction, real estate business, and the environment. These problems greatly affect the economic growth of the city.

“These bottlenecks, if removed, will create better growth momentum for the city this year. Therefore, the management will do its utmost to provide appropriate solutions. If necessary, we will ask higher authorities to remove difficulties, as well as create an open investment environment not only for Danang but also for other localities facing similar difficulties,” he stressed.

Nguyen Bay, director of the Investment Promotion Centre under Binh Dinh Department of Planning and Investment, said that in 2019, the province attracted six foreign-invested projects, with the total investment capital of over $80 million.

The most eminent projects relate to building the QNY Solar Power Plant valued at nearly $70 million by QN Energy from South Korea and the $5-million high-tech pork farms of New Hope Breeding Ltd.

Bay, however, said that the province has not succeeded in luring in sizeable foreign-invested projects that employ modern technology and act as trendsetters to promote the engagement of other projects.

Unsettled traffic congestion, lack of connectivity between regions and the high cost of freight and land lease, taking place through bidding with a series of procedures, have caused numerous difficulties for foreign investment and domestic projects.

According to Bay, Binh Dinh will come up with diverse solutions to build a transparent financial mechanism to promote investment socialisation, thereby creating favourable conditions to facilitate projects by domestic and foreign investors.

Meanwhile, many large projects in Phu Yen province are temporarily suspended in order to review investment procedures and solve problems related to land procedures. In particular, the Phoenix Garden urban area project across 77 hectares by IRB Holdings has been revived after relevant authorities promised to create the most favourable conditions for its implementation. Additionally, with guidance from Phu Yen People’s Committee, Phu Yen Economic Zone Management Board organised a meeting to soon have the project off the drawing board.