Regarding the above content, on June 15, Lao Dong published an article "High material prices, many households in Son La temporarily postpone construction" reflecting the situation of high construction material prices, causing construction costs to increase.
Explaining the reason for the scarce supply of construction materials causing high prices, Mr. Dao Tai Tue - Director of the Department of Construction of Son La province is due to the high demand for materials in the province in 2025. Prices of some construction materials increased by 10 - 15%.
Meanwhile, the licensing of common construction material mines in the province is still low. The whole province has 162 mines that have been approved for exploitation, but so far only 38 mines have been licensed and are in operation. Therefore, it has led to a local shortage of construction materials in some localities in the province.
"Currently, the procedures to grant a mineral mine exploitation license require many steps and take a lot of time. Normally, it takes at least 18 months to complete the procedures for granting an exploitation license for a construction mineral mine" - Mr. Tue said.
According to Mr. Tue, currently, some common construction materials in the province such as sand and stone have increased in price due to having to be transported from other provinces to increase costs.
To solve the shortage of construction sand materials, the Department of Construction has advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue technical and economic norms for granting materials using sand for grinding instead of natural sand in construction works.
The Department of Construction has also requested the People's Committee of Son La province to direct relevant units to strengthen inspections, promptly detect and coordinate the handling of speculation, hoarding, unreasonable price increases of construction materials and signs of manipulation and hoarding of the construction materials market.
At the same time, speed up the appraisal progress to submit to the Provincial People's Committee for approval of the investment policy and approve investors in mineral exploitation projects for common construction materials.
Proactively monitor and grasp the developments in construction material prices in the area, the situation of price listing, price declaration, and promptly send a report to the Department of Construction when there are signs of unusual price increases.
"In the long term, we will proactively review, research, classify and add mineral areas for common construction materials with potential to add to the plan for protection, exploration, exploitation and use of mineral resources in the provincial planning, ensuring compliance with the needs of socio-economic development associated with the local government organizations at both levels and the communes and wards after the merger" - Mr. Tue said.
The Department of Construction also requested the Provincial People's Committee to direct relevant departments and branches to study and review the steps and processes for granting mineral exploitation licenses to advise and propose cutting down on procedures and processes related to granting licenses for granting mineral exploitation for common construction materials in the province.
Regarding the problem of scarcity of construction materials causing high prices, on the afternoon of July 16, within the framework of the 11th session of the People's Council of Son La province, term XV, 2021 - 2026, delegates raised this issue to question the head of the Department of Construction of Son La province.
