Golden land project "shelved" for 2 decades
Located on the frontage of Nguyen Huu Canh Street, Ward 22, the old Binh Thanh District (now Thanh My Tay Ward), Ho Chi Minh City, the 13-14 Lot 2 High-rise Housing Project has a prime location, located near the city center. The project's commercial name is Saigon Panorama. Up to now, this place is still just an empty lot, overgrown with weeds despite having been allocated land for more than 20 years.
Recently, the Inspectorate of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City issued inspection conclusion No. 79/KL-TTS on this project. This project was initially assigned to Ho Chi Minh City Youth Roaring Public Service Company Limited as the investor. However, by 2006, Ho Chi Minh City Jewelry Company encountered difficulties and could not complete the project. At the same time, at that time, the company was in the equitization stage, so it could not continue to implement the project.
In August 2006, this company issued a document requesting the City People's Committee to consider allowing Vinh Phat Investment Joint Stock Company (Vinh Phat Company) to accept as the investor. After many legal procedures, Vinh Phat Company was not granted a planning license until July 2018. However, to date, the project has not been approved for investment. The investor has not yet fulfilled its financial obligations and has not been granted a land use right certificate.
Thus, since the land acquisition in 2003, after more than 20 years, the Saigon Panorama project of Vinh Phat Investment Joint Stock Company has not been completed. The actual status of the project shows that the land has been surrounded by corrugated iron for many years, with overgrown grass and trees. This situation is wasting land resources and affecting the urban beauty of Ho Chi Minh City.
According to the inspection conclusion, the process of preparing procedures and implementing the project had some errors in procedures according to the provisions of the law on land. This project is considered one of the projects that has been backlogged for a long time, with complex legal documents and related to the functions and tasks of many levels and many sectors.
"Diamond" land is also just for parking
The land at 238 3/2 Street (old Ward 12, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City) was planned by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee with the function of the largest office tower, hotel, commercial center, and financial center in Ho Chi Minh City. The above project has an area of 8.1 hectares, of which about 0.9 - 1.1 hectares are for the Ky Hoa hotel project and about 7-7.2 hectares are assigned to a partner, Berjaya Group (Malaysia), in which about 1 hectare of the existing lake must be retained.
Immediately after signing a contract with the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, in 2008, Berjaya Group announced the investment in the Vietnam Financial Center project on the above land, with a total investment of up to 930 million USD. At that time, this was considered the "huge" project in Vietnam.
Although located in a very favorable location between 3/2 - Le Hong Phong - Cao Thang extended routes, after many years, instead of the necessary shape of a modern financial center as introduced by the investor, the entire area of more than 8 hectares of the project has been "ripped off" to be rented out to keep motorbikes, cars day/night, car washes, rented out as warehouses...
Even huge losses and waste occurred at the Ky Hoa land plot where Ky Hoa Tourism and Trading Company Limited signed a land lease contract with partners, leading to a lawsuit. It is worth mentioning that many cases of land lease here, although their term has expired since the end of 2024, are then allowed to continue to extend the lease at low prices without auctioning to select a leasing unit.
Meanwhile, right in District 1 (old) of Ho Chi Minh City, there are dozens of prime lands that have been vacant or unfinished for many years. These lands not only cause waste but also negatively affect the face of Ho Chi Minh City.
Typically, the Tax Commercial Center is a "diament" land located between the three frontages of Nguyen Hue - Le Loi - Pasteur streets with an area of 9,000m2, abandoned for many years, causing waste and frustration. Before being abandoned, the Tax Trade Center was a bustling trading place that brought in large revenues for Satra Group - a 100% state-owned enterprise. In 2016, the building was demolished to prepare for the construction of a new building called the 40-storey Satra Tax Plaza, expected to start construction in the first quarter of 2017, to be completed in 2020. However, for nearly ten years, the land has not been built.
Recently, another "diamond" land plot is the project of office towers and banking and financial centers at 117-119-121 Nguyen Hue and 16 Ton That Thiep with an area of 2,735m2 invested by BIDV Bank. Since 2007, the land has been approved by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee for the value of land use rights and in 2009, there was a decision to allocate land to BIDV to invest in the project in the form of land allocation with land use fees. However, after nearly 2 decades, the project is still on paper.
No less wasteful is the land plot of more than 6,000m2 at 2-4-6 Hai Ba Trung (old District 1) which has also been abandoned for many years. The land plot at 8 - 12 Le Duan (old District 1) has a total area of over 4,800m2 in the center, with 3 frontages on Le Duan - Nguyen Van Chiem - Hai Ba Trung streets that have been abandoned for many years. Currently, the entire land is surrounded by corrugated iron.
Another prime land plot that has also caused a lot of "noise" in recent times is the land plot of more than 6,000m2 at 33 Nguyen Du and 34-36-42 Chu Manh Trinh (old District 1). This used to be the headquarters of the Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) but then became involved in violations in the management and use of state assets.
In 2015, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee assigned this land to Vinafood 2 to implement a project of a hotel, office and commercial center complex for 50 years. However, instead of implementing the project in accordance with regulations, Vinafood 2 cooperated with Viet Han Company to establish Viet Han Saigon Company, then illegally divested capital, turning public land into private property, causing a loss of nearly 1,000 billion VND to the state. On October 27, 2023, Ho Chi Minh City Police initiated a case and prosecuted a number of individuals related to violations at this land.
The case is a typical example of violations in public land management, causing great losses to the budget and forcing the government to take strong interventions to recover state assets.
