Vung Tau turns up heat on delayed investments

Seaside paradise Vung Tau is drowning in delayed projects

Recently, the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Planning and Investment Department announced a list of 78 projects that have been delayed for too long. Eleven of the projects will be revoked.

Projects already revoked include Vung Tau Paradise, registered in 1991 by a joint venture between Vung Tau Intourco Resort JSC and Taiwan’s Paradise Development and Investment. The project was revoked due to poor progress in 2017. The local authorities are currently looking for a new investor.

Besides, a 5.6 hectare land area has just been retrieved from Vinaconex, and an 11.6ha area from Saigon Trading Company was just revoked. A few months ago, three residential development projects of Viet Han Real Estate Company were revoked after prolonged immobility.

Huong Sen Golf Course and the Kawasami Tourism project are also awaiting revocation as they produced zero progress for the last 10 years.

In the first 10 months of 2018, the local authorities had stopped the operation of 21 projects, with another six expected by the end of the year.

According to Mai Trung Hung, deputy director of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Department of Construction, these projects were of large scale and widely known, but were left unimplemented for many years. “If nothing else, we have to learn from these cases to avoid similar issues with following projects,” Hung said.

The most common reason behind the delays was a lack of investment capital from investors. Some other projects, meanwhile, violated environmental regulations. For example, the construction of the Ngoc Phu Villages project and The Regal Villas have been stopped because the developer flattened part of the Nho Mountain without permission.

“We cannot develop the economy without giving due consideration to the environment – otherwise we will cause more harm to ourselves in the long term,” said Nguyen Van Hau, general director of Asian Holding.

Trinh Hang, director of the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Tourism Department, said that while the province is extremely popular among real estate investors, its marked lack of leisure facilities was a great disadvantage. “Many investors who have been given project certificates are waiting for the development of leisure facilities to begin construction, hoping for more tourists,” Hang said.

The Ba Ria-Vung Tau People’s Committee said that in 2019, they will focus on meeting investors and discussing delayed projects to find ways to resume these projects or replace the investors.