[Vnbiz] The great Vietnam land grab

[Phan, Tai]

Asia Times 
Southeast Asia
     Aug 10, 2006  
  
 
  
 The great Vietnam land grab 
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam 

HANOI - As Vietnam opens its economy to the outside world, it is witnessing a phenomenon familiar in China - misappropriation of land by powerful officials and large-scale evictions of peasants and poor people from their holdings in the name of development. 

Forcible evictions to make way for roads and development projects are triggering social unrest and becoming an embarrassment for a country that is seeking both entry to the World Trade Organization and more foreign investment in property assets. Street protests by peasants who claim they have been deprived of their land are now commonplace in large urban centers such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. 

For instance, hundreds of people living along Khuat Duy Tien Street in the outlying suburb of Thanh Xuan demonstrated in front



of the People's Council of Hanoi on July 19 to urge local authorities to fulfill promises of compensation for land acquired from them by the state to make way for a new road. 

Defying orders against unlawful assembly, the demonstrators ran a month-long sit-in at Thanh Xuan that began in early June after authorities issued orders that houses were to be cleared to make way for "Road-Belt No 3". Officials have yet to issue a clear compensation policy. 

''We have been living there since 1993, and our land has already turned residential. But the authorities will only pay for 60 square meters of land and consider the remaining area as farm land,'' they said, adding that the deputy chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee, Le Quy Don, had originally promised that all land acquired for the road would be treated as residential and compensation paid accordingly. Official compensation rates are VND13 million (US$820) for each square meter of residential land and VND225,000 ($14) per square meter of farmland. 

Pham Thanh Xuan, a local official, said the master plan for the road existed in 1981, and therefore people who settled in the area after that year would only be eligible for compensation equal to the value of 60 square meters of residential land. ''With that kind of assistance policy, we will have nothing left,'' said one of the protestors, Phan Ba Tuat. 

Protesters argue that the master plan was until now kept secret and claim they were already given official rights - residential as well as other usage - for their land. ''We only want those rights to be respected,'' they said. Don admitted that the problem was partly caused by local authorities, but said an amicable solution could be found. He said he had ordered local authorities to settle the issue by last Saturday. 

Compensation and corruption around land transfers have become critical issues in Vietnam. Some observers predict that, as in China, questionable state land reclamations could lead to widespread social unrest and derail Vietnam's socioeconomic development. 

Protesters now gather daily before the Communist Party of Vietnam offices and at "meet the people" sessions on Mai Xuan Thuong Street in the capital. This place became famous last year after an old woman named Tran Thi Thu burned herself to death to protest perceived injustices perpetrated against her family by government officials. 

In April, thousands of people living in the three southern provinces of Can Tho, An Giang and Kien Giang sent an open letter to the party and the government accusing local authorities of illegally grabbing their land. Land problems were also the main topic of discussion on the first day of Ho Chi Minh City's legislative assembly session this month, where deputies criticized complicated land regulations as providing "fertile soil" for corrupt officials. 

According to Trinh Xuan Thu, deputy director of the Security Department, some 1,300 officials involved in various land scams have been arrested over the past five years. ''Fifty percent of them were charged after their victims complained against them,'' Thu said. 

The Lao Dong newspaper reported on July 24 that officials in Tay Ninh province had grabbed hundreds of hectares of state land to divide among themselves. The newspaper also accused Tran Hoan Kiem, an official at Tay Ninh Sugarcane Co, of misappropriating some 141 hectares of land. 

Illegal land dealing has become so widespread that the real-estate market in Vietnam is now seen as one of the least transparent in the world. Jones Lang LaSalle, a US-based real-estate-services provider, recently rated Vietnam's real-estate transparency index as the lowest among 56 countries it surveyed. 

At a conference organized in May in Ho Chi Minh City aimed at attracting foreign investment to Phu Quoc, Vietnam's resort island, many investors asked: ''How can investors take part in the development of Phu Quoc when all the land is in the hands of real-estate speculators?'' Early this year, several officials on Phu Quoc were arrested for illegally dealing in land. Follow-up investigations found that officials had misappropriated vast areas of beachfront property and sold it to speculators. 

Illegal land speculation, excessive red tape, poor infrastructure and inadequate zoning have put off some potential investors, say industry sources. Nguyen Huu Tho, general director of Saigontourist, the country's leading hotel and tourism firm, said his company faced problems in land clearance on two resort and golf projects. ''Clearly illegal land acquisitions have posed challenges and have caused investors like us to miss business opportunities, hindering development of the island,'' he said. 

Louk Lennaerts, director of Life Resorts Development, said authorities should draw up a detailed master plan for the island, so as to regulate land deals and limit substandard construction. ''Authorities should introduce world-class building standards to ensure that the environment of Phu Quoc is not harmed.'' 

Still, some investors are taking their chances. The French group Victoria Hotels and Resorts recently reached an agreement with provincial authorities on Phu Quoc to lease 20 hectares of land for a $12 million resort project, while the US-based Rockingham Asset Management LLC is reportedly seeking to build a massive $1.5 billion resort. 

(Inter Press Service)