Speed ​​up the progress of land clearance and resettlement of Hua Na Hydropower project

(Baonghean) -This afternoon, November 1, under the chairmanship of comrade Le Xuan Dai - Member of the Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the People's Committee of Nghe An province had a working session with the leaders of the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group on the progress of the Hua Na hydropower project.

Also attending the meeting were comrades: Tran Hong Chau - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Do Van Hau - General Director of Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group.

Up to now, the construction progress of the main items of the Hua Na Hydropower Project is being carried out closely following the set schedule. However, the project is facing many difficulties in compensation, site clearance, and resettlement. Currently, only 7.14% (100/1400 households) have been moved out of the reservoir's affected area.

The main reasons for the 6-month delay in the resettlement work compared to the plan are: large area, complex terrain, loose land management leading to errors and confusion in the measurement, extraction of cadastral maps and inventory of current status. Compensation prices for some types of land and some types of crops have changed, lower than previous years, and the policy of supporting career conversion when reclaiming land for hydropower projects has not been clearly defined, causing people to have questions. In addition, due to not thoroughly understanding the living habits of the people, some items such as the design of land leveling, restrooms, livestock barns, etc. have to be adjusted many times. In addition, complicated weather and prolonged heavy rains have slowed down the construction progress and made the resettlement difficult.

At the meeting, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group requested the People's Committee of Nghe An province to pay attention to investment incentives for the Hua Na Hydropower project such as: exempting land rent during the project implementation period, exempting land use fees for the company's staff and workers' dormitory in Ban Tang, Tien Phong commune, Que Phong district; speeding up the construction progress of Road 48 and Tay Nghe An to ensure the transportation of equipment and materials for the project...

Comrade Le Xuan Dai spoke and acknowledged the efforts of the investor, Que Phong District People's Committee and all levels of sectors in speeding up the project's progress, especially in removing difficulties and obstacles in site clearance.

To ensure the project is on schedule, the People's Committee of Nghe An province requested the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Power Corporation, and the Vietnam Development Bank to concentrate enough capital to implement the project, especially capital for site clearance, review the capacity of contractors, resolutely replace contractors who are not capable, pay attention to synchronously building key items such as electricity, roads, schools, stations, domestic water... in resettlement areas. At the same time, the People's Committee of Que Phong district was assigned to coordinate and focus on promoting propaganda and mobilization work so that people understand and support the policies and guidelines on site clearance, resettlement, and strive to complete the payment of compensation and construction of 10 resettlement areas of the project by the end of December 2011.

GH