The HCM City People’s Committee has instructed relevant authorities to develop software that will allow the public to obtain land-use plans on their mobile phones as a means to avoid the land “fever” that occurs periodically.

Periodic land “fever” has raised land prices in some suburban districts of HCM City.

“The recent land fever in HCM City has occurred because of several reasons and the city needs to respond immediately to stop it,” Le Van Khoa, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee, told a recent meeting to review the phenomenon.

He pointed out four causes for it: a lot of infrastructures was built recently, directly affecting prices of land nearby; media reports about some big plans in Can Gio and Cu Chi districts; last year the city rescinded many public works that had been on paper for many years, preventing people from buying or selling the lands earmarked for the projects, and prices shot up as a result; and speculation.

“We must publicly announce all land-use master plans from commune to district levels and all should be accessible by mobile phone.”

He instructed the Master Plan and Architecture Department in co-operation with districts Thu Duc and 12 to ready the software by the end of this year.

He confirmed that the city did not have any plans to upgrade Nha Be, Binh Chanh and Hoc Mon districts into downtown districts.

“We have the Government’s decision to build Can Gio Bridge to replace the Binh Khanh ferry, but from policy to reality takes a very long time.”

He was implying that people should not buy land thinking the bridge construction would push up land prices.

“The city People’s Committee did not approve the Marina City project in Trung An Commune, Cu Chi District, as was rumoured, not even the road along the river in the commune,” he said.

The People’s Committee has instructed all districts to improve land management and stop people from carving up lands into plots for selling without approval.

It also called on the State Bank of Viet Nam’s HCM City office to instruct all banks to tighten lending to the property sector.

Tat Thanh Cang, deputy secretary of the city Party Committee, said: “The city Party Committee will issue instructions for the real estate market and guide related authorities in making land-related notifications.

“City spokespersons should make official announcements immediately if any problems crop up and not wait for meetings because if we provide accurate information the media will help the public know about them.”

He also agreed to publicise the land use master plan in every commune and district and called on relevant authorities to create favourable conditions for the public to know about it.

“All HCM City socio-economic, urban and infrastructure development must follow the approved master plan.”

The Party Committee would get the police to investigate those who spread rumours to benefit from them. 

VNS

Substandard investment procedures and regulations hinder investors in major power plant projects, baodautu.vn reported.

Workers install equipment at an independent power producer (IPP) hydro power project invested by Tuyen Nga priavte company in Trường Hà Commune, Ha Quang District, Cao Bang Province. IPP project investors have faced red-tape difficulties.

Ngo Quoc Hoi, Director of An Khanh Thermal Power Company told the investment e-newspaper that investment procedures and policies for power plant investors overlapped.

For example, some projects were submitted with detailed information as part of the adjusted National Power Development Plan VII from 2011-2020, which was approved 

along with the projects in 2016.

However, once the projects were launched, investors were required to re-submit the project’s feasibility study, ask for assessments from ministries and agencies and then 

ask for Government approval.

“It takes an additional six to eight months for a duplicate process before the project is approved again,” Hoi said.

Domestic investors also complained about unequal treatment between independent power producer (IPP) projects and foreign-invested projects under Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contracts.

An IPP or non-utility generator is an entity, which is not a public utility, but which owns facilities to generate electric power for sale.

Foreign-funded BOT projects are given incentives in foreign currency exchange and power sale guarantees but domestic IPP projects are not.

If investors of IPP projects want to exchange currency to pay loans, they have to register with the State Bank and are at risk of changing exchange rates.

Hội added that domestic power investors faced difficulties in borrowing money from local banks.

The company’s Bac Giang Thermal Power Plant Project is set to be completed in 2022 with a capacity of 650 MW. This required investment of more than US$1 billion, which proved difficult to secure.

The company had to ask for loans from various banks as State Bank regulations only allowed a bank to provide loans to a customer worth a maximum of 15 per cent of its capital.

As a result, a big bank in Viet Nam like BIDV can lend a project about VND7.3 trillion (US$321.14 million) at most while an engineering-procurement-construction contract 

for a power plant is at least VND22 trillion.

“The rate should be increased to 25 per cent or power projects will face funding shortages as it’s not easy to mobilise loans from multiple banks,” Hoi said.

He also asked for a guarantee that Electricity of Việt Nam would buy power from IPP projects so that the projects could easily access loans.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Hoang Quoc Vuong said the ministry had proposed the Government exempt investors from re-submitting feasibility studies if their projects were in the adjusted National Power Development Plan VII.

On differences between policies for IPP projects and foreign BOT projects, Vượng said that few local investors could afford $1 billion for a 650MW power plan or $2 billion for a 1,000-1,200 MW plant.

Thus, it was necessary to call for foreign investment and preferential treatment for foreign BOT projects was needed, he said.

He added that once energy investment demand fell and domestic investors were stronger, there would be no difference between policies for foreign and local investors. — 

VNS

Vietnam’s foreign direct investment (FDI) disbursement in the first four months of 2017 was estimated at USD4.8 billion, up 3.2% on-year, however, this is quite low compared with 12% growth over the same period of 2016.

According to the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), FDI disbursement reached a high record of USD15.8 billion in 2016, up 9% from 2015. 

In the first four months of 2016, FDI disbursement saw an on-year rise of 12% and the on-year growth of the same period of 2015 was 7%.

Deputy Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics Le Xuan Sang said the suspended Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has seriously affected Vietnam’s FDI attraction and disbursement. 

Many foreign companies wanted to invest in Vietnam to take advantages of the agreement.

According to Professor Nguyen Mai, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Foreign-Invested Enterprises, the lower FDI disbursement was attributed to tighter environmental regulations in licensing foreign-invested projects after environmental problems.

Meanwhile, several experts noted that the US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates in March this year has also affected FDI disbursement in Vietnam as the USD debts of companies have increased, causing their investment costs to be more expensive. As a result, they must be more careful in their investments.

Le Quoc Anh from the National University of Economics said to attract more FDI and boost FDI disbursement, Vietnam should consider offering more incentives for foreign investors and offer preferential loans for companies which aim to export their products to the US.

“The government needs to have plans to support investment programmes of companies suspended due to the TPP’s collapse. It is also important to boost the free trade agreement negotiations to lure more foreign investors,” Anh added.

dtinews.vn