Removing the "bottleneck" of land to attract investment

Businesses are "thirsty" for space...

Hung Thinh Cao Bang Mineral Joint Stock Company is headquartered in Pac Miau town, Bao Lam district. Currently, the company is implementing a project to exploit lead and zinc at Ban Bo mine, located in Mong An and Thai Hoc communes, Bao Lam district. The entire output of exploited minerals is processed by the company at the workshop and sold lead and zinc products to domestic enterprises. With the goal of continuing to invest in and deeply process minerals, create jobs for workers, increase revenue and contribute to the budget, since 2023, the company has sent an official dispatch requesting the People's Committee of Cao Bang province's approval to invest in the construction of a lead-zinc smelting plant with a capacity of 10,000 tons/year. The construction site is in Chu Trinh Industrial Park, Cao Bang city.

Mr. Vu Van Thang, General Director of Hung Thinh Mineral Joint Stock Company, shared that, as planned, the 10,000-ton/year lead-zinc smelting plant, when completed, will create jobs for 50 local workers and increase the company's budget contribution. However, up to now, the company's plan to build a new factory is still only on paper. The reason is that there is no land to build the factory; Chu Trinh Industrial Park is still stuck with site clearance, and cannot arrange a clean land for the company to build the factory.

Similarly, the Development of Agriculture and Environmental Consulting Company Limited (DACE) has started to build and develop raw material areas in Cao Bang province since 2015. After 10 years, DACE has linked up with 3,014 farming households to grow agricultural products, and indirectly purchased products from more than 7,500 farmers in Ha Quang, Thach An, Trung Khanh, Hoa An, Bao Lam districts... The total area of ​​DACE's raw material areas in Cao Bang is currently 2,300 hectares, with key crops such as ginger, turmeric, chili, cinnamon, star anise, lemongrass, cultivated according to organic and regenerative agriculture methods. The company purchases agricultural products at stable prices and provides comprehensive support to people by providing seeds, materials, technical training, building advanced farming models and investing in infrastructure serving production such as intra-field roads, warehouses, water tanks, etc. From this raw material area, DACE products have been exported to many countries such as the US, Japan, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Australia, and South Korea, contributing to creating a higher position in the global market for Vietnamese agricultural products. On average, each year, the company purchases about 6,000 to 7,000 tons of agricultural products from Cao Bang, with a value ranging from a few dozen to more than 100 billion VND, for processing and export at market prices. In order to increase the added value of local agricultural products, DACE is promoting investment in three agricultural processing factories in Cao Bang province.

Mr. Tran Van Hieu, Director of DACE Company, said: The processing factory in Thach An district has a site and is currently completing construction procedures. As for the ginger processing factory in Ha Quang district, although it has been promoted for the past two years, the project has not yet been implemented. The public land of more than 4,000m² in Na Chang, Xuan Hoa town has been introduced by the province and included in the planning, but the auction procedures for granting land use rights have not been carried out. The factory planned to be built in Chu Trinh Industrial Park, Cao Bang has not yet set a start date because the industrial park is stuck in the land clearance process. "The lack of site for factory construction has forced DACE Company to transport to factories in other provinces for processing, increasing costs and reducing the efficiency of the on-site supply chain," Mr. Hieu emphasized.

Unfinished, wasteful in the industrial park

Chu Trinh Industrial Park started construction in 2017 with a total area of ​​nearly 81 hectares. Up to now, this industrial park has only cleared more than 17 hectares of land and completed a number of technical infrastructure items such as: internal traffic roads, power supply system, water supply, wastewater treatment... with a total investment of more than 152 billion VND. However, the remaining cleared area (67 hectares) has not been implemented due to problems with converting the purpose of using natural forests and environmental impact assessment procedures.

According to Mr. Ly Quoc Khanh, Deputy Head of the Cao Bang Economic Zone Management Board, in the face of the unfinished and entangled situation in the construction of Chu Trinh Industrial Park, the Board is very "impatient" in the context of many enterprises, cooperatives, investors in the province, domestically and internationally coming to learn about investment opportunities and need land to invest in building factories.

According to the leader of the Provincial Economic Zone Management Board, the reason why Chu Trinh Industrial Park is under-invested and has not been effective is because the site clearance of the remaining 67 hectares has encountered some long-term problems. Meanwhile, the investment project to build the Operation Center, Gate and site clearance of Chu Trinh Industrial Park with a total investment capital of 90 billion VND has been approved by the Cao Bang Provincial People's Council on May 25, 2022. However, during the project implementation, the procedures for converting the purpose of using natural forests and assessing the environmental impact report have been prolonged, and there has been a change in policy on the unit price for reforestation. Specifically, according to the project feasibility study report, the cost of reforestation is about 2.5 billion VND; after the policy approved the conversion of forest use purposes and the application of the new policy, the unit price for reforestation increased to 13.7 billion VND.

To resolve this problem, the Cao Bang Economic Zone Management Board has proposed that the Provincial People's Committee adjust the project investment policy, not invest in the Industrial Park Management Center, and focus capital on site clearance. Up to now, the site clearance procedures for Chu Trinh Industrial Park are still in the implementation phase, while many investors, businesses, cooperatives, etc. are still waiting for a clean site to invest in building factories.

Removing the "bottleneck" of land use soon will not only help solve difficulties for businesses but also create motivation for production and business development, increase added value for local products, contribute to economic growth and create jobs in Cao Bang province.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/go-nut-that-ve-mat-bang-de-thu-hut-dau-tu-post880293.html