Land acquisition issues cause delays in many key projects.

Việt Nam•02/10/2023

Currently, only the Thanh Binh Bridge project is basically on schedule. *In the photo: The team of vehicles and machinery of Construction and Trading Company No. 6 are working on the Thanh Binh Bridge project.*

The Nam Rom River Basin Multi-Disaster Management Project has a total investment of over 981 billion VND (ODA capital); implementation period from 2021 to 2025. The project has a total length of over 14.5km, passing through 4 communes of Dien Bien district and 6 wards of Dien Bien Phu city, with 643 households subject to land acquisition. According to Mr. Nguyen Huu Hiep, Director of the Provincial Agricultural Projects Management Board (the investor), currently, besides packages 6 and 7 (construction of embankments from Bom La and other works along the route; construction, dredging, and clearing of the riverbed from bridge C4 to bridge C9) which have commenced, other packages of the project are still facing difficulties in land clearance.

The project is delayed due to difficulties in verifying land ownership. The land clearance area is located along rivers and streams, and there are disputes over land ownership. The land transactions are only documented with handwritten agreements, and multiple transactions have made it difficult to verify ownership. Furthermore, 45 households in Bai Mau village, Thanh Yen commune (Dien Bien district) disagree with the compensation rates for land clearance; they do not agree to the reclamation of the construction waste disposal site; and they do not want to receive monetary compensation or support for land clearance, preferring a land-for-land exchange plan. Meanwhile, according to the requirements of the French Development Agency (AFD), before construction can begin, a cleared site and a report on the land clearance and resettlement action plan, along with an environmental and social management plan prepared by the construction contractor, are required.

The project to connect key economic zones along National Highway 279 and National Highway 12 (the "Moving Economic Zone Road" project) has been stalled for 20 months since the commencement order was issued (January 2022), with many contract packages still unable to commence due to land clearance issues. According to the plan, the project should be completed in just over a year (2021-2024). As of August 25th, only 29.3% of the project's construction volume had been completed, mainly consisting of three bridges over the Nam Rom River and a portion of the roadbed and drainage works for the main and branch lines. Since June 2023, almost no work has been possible on the project due to the lack of available land.

The main reason is that many cases require adjustments to land use names, boundaries, and plot sizes. Verifying land ownership in Dien Bien Phu City is very difficult due to the history of land management. Therefore, completing land records and implementing them according to the regulations of the City People's Committee encounters many obstacles and takes a lot of time, leading to very slow progress in developing plans. In addition, there are difficulties regarding overlapping areas between the Western Basin Road project (already settled) and the main route of the Dynamic Road Project.

These are just two of a series of key projects in the province that are behind schedule. According to the Department of Planning and Investment, the province is currently implementing 11 key projects on the development of technical and social infrastructure and 26 projects on urban housing development, urban areas, commercial and service areas. The total investment for the 11 projects on the development of technical and social infrastructure alone is over 3,439 billion VND. Among them, the Nam Rom River Basin Multi-Disaster Management project has an implementation period until 2025; Seven projects were scheduled for completion by 2024, and three projects were to be finished in 2023. However, as of the end of August 2023, only the Thanh Binh Bridge construction project was basically on schedule, with construction volume reaching approximately 84% of the contract value. The remaining projects were behind schedule due to land acquisition issues.

Besides land acquisition issues, the coordination between relevant units has been neither close nor decisive, and the level of responsibility has been low. For example, in the Dien Bien Phu City arterial road project, on August 10, 2023, the investor completed the dossiers for 29 out of 34 households and submitted them to the City Land Management Center for appraisal and adjustment of the land acquisition notice. However, after 20 days, the City Department of Natural Resources and Environment has still not completed the appraisal to submit to the city for approval.

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