Slow site clearance progress is impeding the project to develop the first agro-industrial zone in Dong Nai, as only one-third of the total area is now available for tenants five months after the ground-breaking event.
Slow site clearance progress is impeding the project to develop the first agro-industrial zone in Dong Nai, as only one-third of the total area is now available for tenants five months after the ground-breaking event.
Phung Khoi Phuc, deputy general director of Dong Nai Food and Industry Corporation (Dofico) as the project owner, told that only 700 hectares out of the total 2,100 hectares had now been cleared for investors. He said that site clearance is the most obstructive phase and can hinder the first phase of the project which is expected to end by 2013.
The zone is planned with five functional areas – one for husbandry, one for cultivation, one for food processing, one for hi-tech agriculture and one for trading. So far, only the husbandry area is available for construction of essential facilities, including waste treatment.
“In other areas, some foreign entrepreneurs have visited us and said they would only register for investment once site clearance was complete. That means the first phase of the project can be put off. In addition, high compensation cost also exerts a lot of pressure on us,” he said.
According to him, a land owner in the area demands VND1 billion for one hectare of his land, which is deemed too high for farmland compensation.
“The troublesome site clearance on two-thirds of the total area will cause a considerable loss to us if there is not appropriate intervention from the Government,” he said.
Dofico’s agro-industrial zone is the first to be built in the country. The legal system and supporting policy for investors in the field are provided for in Circular 61/2010/ND–CP issued by the Government in mid-2010.
Dofico is a State-run company with 32 member enterprises and has total chartered capital of VND4.5 trillion. In September last year, the company started construction of the agro-industrial zone in Xuan Loc District at a cost of VND1.9 trillion.
The zone’s first phase is expected to be put into operation in 2013 and its investment in this phase will amount to VND1.4 trillion.
(Source: SGT)
