Trillion-dong city becomes a wasteland
In early March 2026, at Nam Quan - Thuy Tu Urban Area (Golden Hills City, Hai Van ward, Da Nang), Lao Dong Newspaper reporters recorded a scene contrary to expectations. Internal infrastructure has been basically completed with asphalt roads, paved sidewalks, and synchronous green trees.
However, hundreds of newly built villas in rough construction are still vacant, gray walls, empty windows, weeds growing all over the entrance, some items are degraded after many years of sun and rain. Spacious but deserted, deserted in the middle of a project worth more than 4,400 billion VND that was once expected to be an ecological highlight along the Cu De River.
According to the conclusion of the Government Inspectorate, the project has many violations in the implementation process such as not organizing bidding to select investors, adjusting planning many times, difference in allocated land area, not fully determining financial obligations for rice land... Prolonged legal obstacles have caused the project to be stalled, and the invested land and infrastructure have fallen into a state of waste.
In Ngu Hanh Son ward, the Aria Da Nang Hotel & Resort project - with a total investment of about 756 billion VND - is also in a similar situation.
Started in January 2020, expected to be completed by the end of 2022, but so far many building blocks have only been filled with floors, concrete columns erected and then stopped. Tan Tra sea-facing villas are bare frames, rusty steel, and overgrown with weeds.
Tourist Vu Hong Hanh (36 years old, Hanoi) said that the landscape is affected when on one side is a beautiful blue beach, and on the other side are jagged concrete blocks.
In the Northwest of the city, Quang Da bridge - with a total investment of more than 274 billion VND - has been technically opened to traffic since the end of March 2025. However, for nearly 1 year, the bridge has not fully promoted its connecting role due to the lack of synchronous access roads.
The Northern Ring Road, more than 4.5km long, connecting to the bridge, is deployed slowly, hindering site clearance, and lacking filling soil. Some sections are only temporarily filled with soil for motorbikes to pass, the elevation difference of the bridge surface is more than 2m, and there is overgrown grass.
Unfinished projects, infrastructure deserted are proof of the risk of spreading investment, lacking long-term calculations. Each budget dollar "buried" in non-essential projects is a capital loss of opportunity for social security, education, essential infrastructure or key economic sectors.
Public investment cannot just stop at disbursement
Faced with the above situation, Da Nang Party Secretary Le Ngoc Quang emphasized: Wastefulness is not only a loss of money, but also a waste of development opportunities.
Da Nang Party Secretary requests a shift from the mindset of "infrastructure coverage" to "effective accounting". Public investment cannot just stop at disbursement or inauguration, but must answer the question: Spending 1,000 billion VND, how much will society recover?
If billion-dollar roads do not have vehicles running, urban areas of hundreds of hectares are uninhabited, bridges are opened to traffic but lack access roads, then that is a manifestation of management lacking vision.
Combating wastefulness from key projects that are still behind schedule is also an issue that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is concerned about and frankly pointed out when working with the Standing Committee of the Da Nang City Party Committee on February 28.
The Prime Minister requested the city to overcome the situation of avoidance, shirking, and fear of responsibility; strongly rectify discipline and administrative order; promote the role of the head. At the same time, it is necessary to build a mechanism to protect cadres who dare to think, dare to do, dare to innovate and create for the common good.
Thoroughly grasping that spirit, Da Nang leaders have requested to review the list of key projects, ensuring feasibility, focus, and avoiding spreading out. Public investment in the coming period is identified as a race for efficiency and vision. If the project does not achieve the forecasted efficiency, responsibility will have to be considered.
The city will focus resources on truly dynamic projects such as seaport infrastructure, logistics, high technology, digital transformation, environment, flood control... - projects that directly create new development space and sustainable revenue.
