Illegal wood chip factory that 'forcefully' suspended in Con Cuong district needs to be strictly handled

On April 9, Mr. Tran Anh Tuan - Vice Chairman of Con Cuong District People's Committee said that the locality has drawn up a record of the violation and is building a dossier to issue a decision on enforcement.Illegal wood chip factory in Chi Khe commune.This move came after the District People's Committee inspected and discovered that this wood chipping factory was operating illegally, and requested that it stop operating but was not complied with. "Up to now, this factory has stopped," said Mr. Tuan.

Previously, on February 23, the inspection team of the People's Committee of Con Cuong district discovered an illegal wood chip factory operating behind the Tra Lan Paper Factory of Huy Tuan Joint Stock Company, Nghe An branch. One day later, on the morning of February 24,Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Dealso visited this wood chip factory during an inspection trip of the operations of wood chip factories and processing facilities in Con Cuong and Anh Son districts. Here, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested the local authorities to closely monitor the suspension of operations of this facility.

According to the leader of the People's Committee of Con Cuong district, on February 25, the People's Committee of Con Cuong district issued an official dispatch on organizing inspections and thoroughly handling the situation of illegal construction of wood chip factories and facilities to the People's Committee of Chi Khe commune, including assigning the task to the People's Committee of the commune to urgently review and grasp the operation situation of facilities, organizations and individuals performing wood chip chopping in the area, thereby organizing inspections and thoroughly handling illegal wood chip chopping facilities.

However, this illegal wood chipping facility was still operating vigorously. On March 6, the People's Committee of Con Cuong district continued to issue an official dispatch, requesting the Chairman of the People's Committee of Chi Khe commune to urgently inspect and thoroughly handle the illegal wood chipping facilities, causing negative public opinion among the people. If the situation is not thoroughly handled and the illegal wood chipping facilities continue to operate, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Chi Khe commune must take full responsibility before the Chairman of the District People's Committee and according to the provisions of law.

However, as of early April, according to the reporter, hundreds of tons of acacia wood were still piled up at this factory waiting to be chopped. The factory is quite large in scale. At this time, some workers were busy repairing the machine. One worker said that due to a machine problem, the wood-chipping factory had not been operating for the past 2 days. In the previous days, it was still being chopped normally. Meanwhile, the local government had requested that this factory stop operating more than a month ago.

This wood chipping factory belongs to Thuan Phat Wood and Forestry Products Company Limited. Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu - Director of the company said that the factory started operating in January 2025, the premises were rented from Huy Tuan Joint Stock Company, Nghe An branch. Mr. Hieu admitted that the factory started operating without having all the legal procedures. Talking about the reason why despite being suspended, it is still operating vigorously, Mr. Hieu said, "the factory is chipping the remaining glue that has been purchased". "Now I don't know what procedures are missing, and I don't know who to contact for guidance", Mr. Hieu said.

Mr. Loc Van Hoi - Chairman of the People's Committee of Chi Khe commune said that after receiving the official dispatch from the district People's Committee, on March 6, the commune organized an inspection of this wood chip factory. "When we came to inspect, the company was not operating. We also issued a suspension document and the company also committed and asked for 5 days to release the chopped wood chips at the gathering place," said Mr. Hoi. However, according to the reporter's records, 1 month after this deadline, the company still did not comply.

According to the investigation, Thuan Phat Wood and Chip Company Limited does not have an operating license, the construction land has not been planned, and there is no environmental license. In addition, Huy Tuan Joint Stock Company's act of leasing the premises to this company to build a wood chip factory is an illegal act. The wood chip factory area is also not included in the land area leased by the Provincial People's Committee to Huy Tuan Joint Stock Company, but this area is outside the planning and is private land.

“It was also very difficult for us to detect. Because this wood chipping factory is located in the premises of a paper mill, we had to notify them every time we went to inspect. Therefore, when we came to inspect, they had already stopped operating. We also proposed to cut off the electricity to stop this factory but it was not allowed,” said the Chairman of the People’s Committee of Chi Khe commune when asked about the lax management that allowed the illegal wood chipping factory to be suspended but still operate vigorously.