Years of stagnation
The Department of Planning and Investment (DPI) of Bac Kan province has just announced the termination of the investment project to build a Center for Gene Conservation and Development of Mong cattle breed in Quang Chu commune, Cho Moi district. The reason for the termination is that the Investor - Vietnam Mong Cattle Investment and Development Joint Stock Company decided to terminate the investment project according to the provisions of the Investment Law 2020.
According to research, this project was approved by the Bac Kan Provincial People's Committee under Decision No. 589 on April 28, 2017. Then, on June 25, 2018, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) issued Decision No. 1754 approving the implementation of the Project "Application of technology to develop high-quality beef into commodities according to the value chain in the Northern mountainous region".
The Ministry of Science and Technology, the People's Committee of Bac Kan province and the Vietnam Mong Cattle Investment and Development Joint Stock Company jointly implemented the project with a total investment of over 136 billion VND. According to the schedule, the project will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2020. The scale of the investment project is to preserve genes and crossbreed and develop the Mong cattle breed with a scale of 300 breeding cows, 30 purebred bulls, and fatten 1,000 commercial cows/month.
The project will also build a centralized slaughterhouse with a capacity of 100 animals per day and night, and link up and develop 800-1,000 cooperatives to raise breeding cows and high-quality commercial beef cattle in Bac Kan province and northern mountainous localities.
However, after many years, the project has only built a few small items. Major items such as food processing area, centralized slaughterhouse, and livestock development linkage have not been implemented by the investor.
Many households in Quang Chu commune joined the association, borrowed capital to build barns and grow grass with the hope of receiving support from the company for breeding cows. However, no cows were provided, the barns were abandoned, and people were trapped in debt.
During the 2020-2022 period, through inspections, the authorities determined that there were about 75 cows in the project. By April 27, 2023, the Ministry of Science and Technology inspected and found that the number of cows was only 25 with weak health. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Science and Technology had advanced 10 billion VND to implement the project. Due to the investor's delay and inefficiency in implementation, on May 18, 2023, the Ministry of Science and Technology issued Notice No. 477 on the temporary suspension of project implementation.
Multiple violations persist
During the implementation process, Vietnam Mong Cattle Investment and Development Joint Stock Company continued to propose adjusting the project investment policy in the direction of basically cutting down on uninvested items. However, the company's dossier was incomplete and did not have enough basis for Bac Kan province to approve the adjustment.
At the time of inspection by the Ministry of Science and Technology in April 2023, a number of project items, including the animal feed processing area, were arbitrarily converted by the company to produce candles for export.
In November 2023, the Inspectorate of the Department of Planning and Investment of Bac Kan province fined Vietnam Mong Beef Investment and Development Joint Stock Company VND 85 million for not properly implementing the content of the investment policy approval document.
Previously, the authorities of Bac Kan province determined that more than 3,652 square meters of land within the project area had not been strictly managed, allowing people to encroach and use it to grow acacia trees since 2019. In particular, the company also rented more than 4,000 square meters of land from people to carry out non-agricultural production and business projects in violation of regulations.
During more than 5 years of implementation, Bac Kan province has repeatedly worked, urged and requested Vietnam Mong Cattle Investment and Development Joint Stock Company to implement the set schedule and goals as well as comply with the provisions of the law on investment, but this unit has not been able to perform as committed.
The decision of Bac Kan province to terminate the operation and revoke the investment policy of this project has received public approval; creating land funds to attract quality projects and investors with real capacity.
