Company which manages Youth Park in Hanoi admits that due to financial difficulties, it has to lease space in the park to service providers.
Football field in the park
Most of the land in the park is leased to service providers to provide tennis courts, football fields, parking lots and karaoke bars while the gardens and benches are neglected. The smell from the lake has warded off many visitors.
Hanoi People's Council deputies have requested local authorities strictly deal with the violations. Nguyen Van Khoi, Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee directed the inspection.
Director of Youth Service and Investment Company, Nguyen Hoai Van, who directly manages Youth Park admitted his wrongdoings.
Van said the park had lain mostly abandoned before and had become a favoured place for drug users prior to his renovation and illegal renting out land for commercial services.
Van claimed the park had racked up losses of VND25 billion (USD1.2 million) in 2006 and that the park had owed banks nearly VND50 billion and tax arrears of VND11 billion. Staff salaries were three months overdue and the park owed VND700 million in insurance payments.
The company's assets have been frozen while the visitors don't have to pay fees to enter Youth Park.
Van said he would remove the services when the park received additional investment. "Why do we have to remove these services now when the city hasn't assigned any replacements yet? The park would become abandoned land again and our staff face financial difficulties."
Pham Duc Hung, Director of Hanoi Tourist Company, parent company of Youth Service and Investment Company assured that the incomes from services providers were controllable and will not cause tax losses to the state. The company often audits and inspects the services.
However, he admitted the Hanoi People's Committee complaints were accurate and the company could still fix the problems.
"We absolutely are at fault." he said. "But because the company and the staff in Youth Park have to face many difficulties. We also told the Youth Company to do business carefully."
To deal with the problem, Hung said the Youth Company must be a public company and have basic salaries like other parks in the city.
On August 13, Nguyen Van Khoi, Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee asked the Department of Construction to draft a management and operational plan for Youth Park. The Department would have to return their results by the end of August.
A tennis court