City golf projects fail to get into the swing of things

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The city will house five golf courses according to Vietnam golf course development plan to 2020 which was given the nod by the prime minister.

However, of the five licenced golf course projects, only Lam Vien golf course was brought on line. The remaining four projects incur delays due to site clearance problems.

They is a 139 hectare golf course project in District 2’s An Phu ward, a project in Cu Chi district’s Tan Thong Hoi commune over 200ha belonging to Ho Chi Minh City North-West urban area, a project in Tan Binh district which is part of Tan Son Nhat airport over 157ha and a 300ha Sinh Viet golf course project in Binh Chanh district’s Le Minh Xuan commune.

The An Phu ward golf course currently gets stuck due to compensation problems, according to Ho Chi Minh City golf course project 2010 inspection report by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Developer Saigon Development and Investment Joint Stock Company (SDI) compensated 109.337ha out of 139.788ha, or  94 per cent of project’s total area.

The golf course would be brought online in the fourth quarter of 2013 if not incurring site clearance problems said a SDI representative.

Under 2003 approved compensation plan, agricultural land in the project area cost VND150,000-VND200,000 (currently $0.072-$0.096) per square metre. The developer then agreed to lift the compensation cost to VND870,000 ($0.42) per square metre upon land owners’ requests.

However, a resident in the project area said the compensation cost was still far lower than that at some public utility projects also based on District 2 of VND1.5 million ($0.72) per square metre.

Many people did not agree with SDI’s compensation and recently lodged petitions to competent state agencies. Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court reportedly announced a withdrawal of some decisions issued by District 2 People’s Committee on land compensation as it did not conform to regulations.

Similarly, the Binh Chanh district Sing Viet golf court project (part of Sing Viet urban area) also faces delays. The project’s developer is Sing Viet Urban Company Limited.

Regarding the project, Binh Chanh District People’s Committee had issued 303 decisions on land compensation under which 213 local householders received a total compensation package of VND318 billion ($15.3 million), the remaining 90 householders did not agree with the compensation.

According to deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Van Hong, the city authorities were considering withdrawal of Sinh Viet golf court and urban area projects once developer Sinh Viet Urban Company Limited continued incurring delays.