Billion dollar projects stalled

The delays have left many farming families in limbo, unable to work their land while awaiting compensation for being forced off their properties.

One example is the US$9.80 billion Ca Na steel complex project in central Ninh Thuan Province. The project investor was allotted 1,650 hectares of land by the provincial government and early work on the site began in January. But residents who have to leave their homes to make way for the project have not yet been compensated.

Under Vietnam’s investment laws, the developers of major projects pay local authorities for the use of land. The local authorities allocate the money to the residents who have to move to allow the project to proceed.

Ninh Thuan Province People’s Committee Deputy Chairman Do Huu Nghi said the steel mill investors haven’t yet fully paid for the use of the land they were allocated.

The investors – the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation and Malaysia’s Lion Group – have paid the provincial government only VND84 billion ($4.73 million). The total fee for the use of the land for the steel mill is VND130 billion ($7.31 million). However, Nghi would not be drawn on whether the People’s Committee was considering revoking the project’s investment certificate or administering any kind of punishment for the delay.

The steel mill is scheduled to go into operation in 2010 with an annual output of 4.5 million tons of steel. But the investors have not yet set up a management board for the joint venture project or prepared a technical plan.

Resident Bay Hoa said none of the 500 households that will have to move to make way for construction have received any compensation.

Although the project appears stalled, local authorities are refusing to allow any house repairs or other investment activity in the area earmarked for the steel plant, Hoa said. A similar situation exists in Ho Chi Minh City’s Hoc Mon District.

Thousands of residents are unable to conduct any business on their land, which has been reserved for a 900 hectare international university and residential project.

Malaysia’s Berjaya Land Corporation’s $3.5 billion project was awarded an investment license last July. Even though construction usually begins shortly after an investment license is received, the only work carried out by Berjaya Land Corporation to date has been putting up markers on the boundary of the site.

“No other progress has been made after the stakes were placed in the ground,” said Huynh Van Vang, a Tan Thoi Nhi Commune farmer whose land is within the area allotted to the project.

Another resident, Ba, complained the project investor set stakes on her land as if they owned it, even though she has never received any advice from local authorities that she will have to move.

Phuong Anh Phat, manager of Berjaya Land, told Tuoi Tre his company had already paid for the use of 116 hectares but local authorities had not yet passed any of the money on to residents.

At another stalled project in HCMC’s Hoc Mon District, a 36-hole golf course, hardly any work has been carried out since the investment license was granted to South Korea’s GS Engineering and Construction Company in March 2007.

On the 200 hectare site there are two bulldozers and an office which is closed for days at a time.

Work on an international financial center project in HCMC’s District 10, which was granted an investment license in February last year, has been delayed for a different reason.

“The $930 million project on eight hectares had to slow down construction because of the current global economic downturn,” said Nguyen Hoai Nam, general director of developer Berjaya Vietnam.

Next-door to HCMC, in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province, at least five major projects have been postponed.

Construction of the $4.1 billion Saigon Atlantic Hotel project has been at a standstill since early this year because of a land dispute with Dai Duong, the neighboring resort project.

The dispute, which has dragged on for months, occurred after the provincial authorities accidentally granted a portion of land to both projects.

Other projects in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, including the $600 million Toc Tien residential development, a $500 million zoological park, a $1.3 billion theme park and a $3.8 billion petrochemistry complex, have also been stalled since early this year because of administrative problems or a lack of cash.