Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project: Listening to the people and "going to every alley, knocking on every door"

>>> Lesson 2: Soft solutions to resolve all problems

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Final Lesson: Consensus is the Key

Listening to the people, thoroughly resolving their suggestions and concerns, ensuring their rights, and complying with legal regulations to create consensus are the keys to success in site clearance at the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project through Bien Hoa City.

Construction of Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project through Bien Hoa City. Photo: P.Tung

Through the meetings, the government provided full, open and transparent information to the people. Thanks to that, the people clearly understood the importance of the project, realized that their rights were guaranteed and agreed to participate in the implementation.

Solve the problem at its root

Mr. Pham Van Lai's family (residing in Huong Phuoc quarter, Phuoc Tan ward) has more than 1,700 m2 of land and 5 frontage houses for rent that must be cleared to implement the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project.

With a large amount of assets, Mr. Lai's family initially did not agree to hand over the land because they thought the compensation price was low and there was no resettlement site. However, after many times being persuaded by Working Group No. 1 of Bien Hoa City Party Committee, Mr. Lai agreed to hand over the land with two requests: when arranging resettlement, his family and children would be arranged to resettle close together; at the same time, he was allowed to build a temporary house using containers to live while waiting for resettlement land.

As the person who directly met Mr. Lai's family 3 times, Ms. Ngo Thi Tram, Head of the Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Department of Bien Hoa City Party Committee, Head of Working Group No. 1, shared: "In response to the legitimate wish of Mr. Lai's family, which is to have the father and son resettled close together for the convenience of taking care of the elderly, I have reminded Phuoc Tan Ward and the Provincial Land Fund Development Center to support this wish of Mr. Lai."

As for Mr. Lai's family, after having their wishes resolved, the family agreed to hand over the premises.

“I have lived here since the 1980s, and now I have to move to a new place. But I understand that if you want to develop, you have to make sacrifices. My family has suffered a lot, so I hope the project will be implemented and completed on schedule, worthy of our trust,” Mr. Lai shared.

Bien Hoa City Party Secretary Ho Van Nam assessed that site clearance is the most difficult step in the process of implementing a project. To make site clearance successful and shorten the time, consensus between the people and the government is a prerequisite.

Thanks to the establishment of special working groups to "go to every alley, knock on every door" to mobilize land handover combined with organizing direct dialogues between city leaders and people to solve the root problems, the Land Acquisition Sub-project of the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project through Bien Hoa City reached the finish line after more than 50 days. This model is currently being applied by many units in land acquisition work to implement other projects.

“To have consensus, we must be open and transparent. We must thoroughly handle people’s questions and suggestions on the basis of complying with legal regulations and ensuring the highest interests of the people,” said Mr. Ho Van Nam.

As evidence for this, Mr. Nam said that at the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project, one of the issues that people complained about the most was the determination of land location to calculate compensation prices. In fact, initially, many records did not accurately determine the land location due to slow updating of the current status, causing people to believe that their related rights were not guaranteed, leading to disagreement in handing over the site.

“Previously, many roads were dirt roads, at that time the land location of the people could be location 3, location 4. However, now these roads have been upgraded and expanded, so when re-determined, the land location can change to location 2” - Mr. Nam explained.

Faced with that reality, Bien Hoa city has requested localities to coordinate with the Provincial Land Fund Development Center to review and accurately determine the land location of the people.

"After reviewing, the agencies publicly announced and compared the regulations for the people to know, and the majority of households agreed to immediately hand over the land," said Mr. Ho Van Nam.

Resettlement must come before land acquisition.

In addition to questions about land prices and land location, one of the major "bottlenecks" that has caused the site clearance work of the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project, the section through Bien Hoa city, to "stand still" for a long time is the slow construction of resettlement areas to arrange housing for people.

Currently, although 100% of the project site has been handed over, the two resettlement areas to accommodate the people have not yet been built.

Director of the Provincial Land Fund Development Center Mai Phong Phu said that in the process of meeting and mobilizing people to hand over land, resettlement is one of the difficult issues to answer with people. The resettlement areas have not been built yet, so when people ask where the resettlement will be arranged, it is very difficult to answer.

For Bien Hoa city, not only the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway Project, but also many other projects, the site clearance work is facing a major "bottleneck" in the issue of resettlement arrangements for people. With the reality that the remaining land fund is quite limited, to build resettlement areas to serve the projects, Bien Hoa city always has to face the difficult problem of "resettlement for resettlement". This is also one of the reasons why the progress of construction of resettlement areas in the city is mostly behind schedule.

Vice Chairman of Bien Hoa City People's Committee Vu Quoc Thai said that the city's resettlement land fund is currently scattered in wards, not concentrated in areas with key projects. This leads to an imbalance in the resettlement land fund in areas and locations with land acquisition projects, causing difficulties in arranging resettlement land and creating consensus among people to hand over land early to implement projects. On the other hand, the city does not have social housing available to arrange accommodation for cases that do not meet the conditions for land compensation according to the provisions of the Housing Law.

According to the People's Committee of Bien Hoa city, to thoroughly solve the resettlement problem when implementing land acquisition and clearance projects in the area, the city is reviewing land funds and speeding up the progress of resettlement area construction projects.

“The city is implementing 25 investment projects to build resettlement areas. Along with that, there are 15 other projects preparing for investment,” Mr. Vu Quoc Thai added.

Pham Tung - Hoang Loc

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202505/du-an-duong-cao-toc-bien-hoa-vung-tau-lang-nghe-dan-va-di-tung-ngo-go-cua-tung-nha-6ef47b7/