According to the Management Board of Dung Quat Economic Zone and Quang Ngai Industrial Zones, Dung Quat Economic Zone is currently home to 348 projects with registered investment of nearly VND 377 trillion (USD16.06 billion) including 54 FDI projects with investment of nearly USD1.80 billion. There are also 104 other projects which are facing slow progress, leaving hundreds of hectares of land abandoned for over a decade.
The Dung Quat Industrial Town was among the stagnant projects. After the Hoang Thinh Dat Company started construction on a total area of 496 hectares in 2016, local authorities spent over VND 100 billion on site clearance work on over 100 hectares. However, the land has been left idle for the past six years.
Another project, the Thien Dang Tourism Site, was given a construction licence in 2005 on an area of 286 hectares. However, the investor continued to adjust their progress. Quang Ngai provincial authorities issued warnings several times but much of the work has remained abandoned after 16 years.
The Dung Quat Economic Zone has a total area of over 45,000 hectares. While there is no more land left for new projects, the stagnant projects have led to huge wastefulness and caused anger among local people.
Chairman of Quang Ngai Provincial People's Committee, Dang Van Minh, admitted that although all the land had been assigned to investors at the Dung Quat Economic Zone, a large area had been left unused.
"It’s ridiculous," the official said. "We need to look into problems in land management here and be determined to deal with violations. We'll have to reclaim all the land from stagnant projects."
Deputy head of the Management Board of Dung Quat Economic Zone and Quang Ngai Industrial Zones, Nguyen Pham Trong Nghia, explained that there were some reasons for the projects facing stagnant progress including slow site clearance work and investor hesitancy over changes in land-use policies.
"Following instructions from the Quang Ngai Provincial People's Committee, we're looking into all projects that have failed to start construction within 12 months and would guide them to renew their licenses if necessary," Nghia said. "But we’ll strictly reclaim the land on all projects which violate our regulations."
