A famous name among the century-old suspended projects in Ho Chi Minh City is the Sing-Viet Urban Area project. The investor is Sing-Viet Urban Area Company Limited (100% capital of Amaland Pte.Ltd - a company established in Singapore).
The project was expected to be a modern urban area with many functions such as tourist areas, hotels, villas, amusement parks, sports complexes, etc., but it was not until 10 years after being granted an investment license that the project began to be implemented.
Up to now, after 25 years, the project is still an empty lot, overgrown with grass and only about 50% of households in the project area have received compensation.
The biggest problem at present in the project is that the investor has not completed the compensation and site clearance work to lay the foundation for the implementation of the next steps. The project is also related to the Van Thinh Phat Group case, in which Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung, Chairman of the Board of Directors and the second legal representative of Sing-Viet Urban Company Limited, was prosecuted and arrested.
Or the Binh Quoi - Thanh Da urban area project is considered a "super project" that has been suspended for more than 3 decades. This project has a scale of up to 427 hectares, including the entire Thanh Da peninsula. Up to now, the Binh Quoi - Thanh Da project is still in the stage of waiting for new planning ideas.
Right in the center of Ho Chi Minh City, there are many prime lands that have been planned and then abandoned for many years. One example is the prime land with an area of nearly 5,000 m², at 8-12 Le Duan, which has been "inactive" for many years due to its involvement in a case of illegal land allocation and leasing, and part of the land has been used as a parking lot.
The land plot 2-4-6 Hai Ba Trung (District 1) with an area of over 6,080 m² has also been abandoned for many years due to violations in the transfer of public land. Currently, both plots of land have been recovered and managed by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has also just reported to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on the implementation of the 2024 Land Law; the review and handling of projects that do not put land into use and are behind schedule in land use.
Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City has 176 land projects that must be adjusted or canceled due to failure to properly implement the annual land use plan at the district level, leading to impacts on the rights of land users according to the provisions of the 2013 Land Law. Of which, through a review in 19 districts, 112 projects were found to not put the land into use or to be behind schedule in land use.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee said that in the process of development, Ho Chi Minh City has formed large urban areas. At the same time, the legal regulations on land, investment and construction are constantly changing, so the organization and implementation of procedures still face many difficulties and obstacles in practice.
Along with that, compensation and site clearance are prolonged, while land prices are increasingly fluctuating and increasing rapidly. Therefore, the longer the project takes, the more difficulties there are in negotiating compensation and site clearance. Furthermore, some investors lack capital and capacity... which are also the reasons for the project implementation to be prolonged and behind schedule.
The Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee said that the Land Law only regulates the handling of projects that are allocated land by the State or leased land behind schedule, and does not regulate the handling of projects where investors voluntarily change the land use purpose.
Meanwhile, the projects allocated land by the State are mostly public works, invested with State budget capital; Projects with land use purpose change are projects invested with non-budget capital. However, the land law does not have regulations and sanctions for slow-to-implement projects. This leads to the fact that some projects have been allowed to change land use purpose for many years but have not yet been implemented, causing waste of resources...".
