According to research, decades ago, the Dong A Sea Ecological Urban Area project (in Sam Son ward, Thanh Hoa province) was approved for investment. The project is invested by Dong A Real Estate Group Limited, and has been approved by Thanh Hoa province through many stages from 2004 to 2015. By 2018, the component projects were merged into one, with an area of over 60 hectares.
According to the plan, the project includes items such as entertainment areas, ecological landscapes, resort villas, hotels with a scale of about 1,000 rooms and many other additional services. With such a scale, the project was expected to create a multi-functional urban tourism model, contributing to improving the quality of resort tourism in Sam Son. The total estimated investment is about 3,800 billion VND.
Although there are great expectations, the reality is the opposite. After many adjustments to the planning and requirements for urgent implementation, for decades, this project has been "inactive".
On December 11, according to the reporter of Lao Dong Newspaper, the project area is currently just an empty lot, with some unfinished filling points, many concrete piles lying everywhere, surrounded by overgrown weeds.
The reason for the prolonged delay was determined to be due to problems with legal procedures, the determination of land use fees, land types as well as compensation and site clearance records. The sluggish progress of the project causes waste of land resources and affects the lives of households in the planning area.
To resolve this situation, Thanh Hoa province and local authorities have repeatedly requested investors to urgently complete procedures and implement the project. However, up to now, the project is still "stuck in place".
The representative of Sam Son ward's leadership said that the project has a scale of more than 60 hectares. Up to now, the locality has cleared more than 40 hectares, mainly agricultural land; the remaining 20 hectares are residential land of the people, so it has not been implemented.
The project was previously located in the old Sam Son city. After organizing a two-level government model, the project is located on the border of Sam Son and Nam Sam Son wards. At the end of November 2025, the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Agriculture and Environment to preside over and coordinate with Sam Son ward, Nam Sam Son ward and related units to remove obstacles and speed up the project's progress.
