High quality project becomes a place for... cow herding!
It has been 10 years since the investment policy was approved, the Project of High-tech Essential Oil, Medicinal Herbs, and Functional Food Production Complex, now the Project of High-Quality Green Tea Plantation, Production, and Processing Complex for Export, of VN Nam Dan Van An Company Limited in Thanh Thuy Commune (Thanh Chuong) is still an empty lot.
Great Expectations
On October 10, 2013, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 4560/QD-UBND.CNTM, approving the investment policy of the Project of High-tech Essential Oil, Medicinal Herbs, and Functional Food Production Complex in Thanh Thuy Commune, Thanh Chuong District.
The project is invested by VN Nam Dan Van An Company Limited (abbreviated as Nam Dan Van An Company), with a total investment of 217 billion VND, on an area of over 33.7 hectares. The project will have a capacity of about 250 thousand tons of raw materials (lemongrass) per year. In particular, it is expected that all input materials of the factory will be grown by the people themselves and sold back to the factory. The investor has also committed to purchasing the products, and bringing the people 200 - 300% higher income than growing rice or other crops.
Although it is expected to create stable jobs and create livelihoods to escape poverty for thousands of local farming households. In particular, when implementing this project, nearly 20 households have been moved out of this area and resettled. The investor also committed to starting the project in 2014 and completing it in the first quarter of 2015. However, in June 2015, Nam Dan Van An Company sent a document to the Provincial People's Committee requesting to extend the project implementation schedule until June 2017 and was approved. However, after many years, the land area of more than 33 hectares is still a wasteland.
In fact, at the project implementation area, we (the reporter) noticed that a vast area on the right side of National Highway 46 from Ro Bridge to Thanh Thuy Border Gate was abandoned. Some of the corrugated iron sections that the investor had previously fenced off had also been blown away. Going deeper inside, we could only see a bare iron frame house, which used to be the project's operating house, but after 10 years, only the frame remained.
Mr. Ha Hong Thai - Chairman of Thanh Thuy Commune People's Committee said: The site clearance has been completed and handed over to the investor. However, it has not been implemented yet.
Many years ago, seeing the land being left to waste, people suggested planting cassava or other short-term crops to make use of the land, but the investor did not agree. If they had planted cassava or acacia, they would have had several crops already.
Mr. Ha Hong Thai - Chairman of Thanh Thuy Commune People's Committee
"Old wine in new bottle"
After many years of being "shelved", the project of the Complex of producing essential oils, medicinal herbs, and high-tech functional foods in Thanh Thuy commune has not been implemented, making local people very disappointed. Now, they are surprised when the project is "dressed" with a new name.
Specifically, on June 7, 2021, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 39/QD-UBND approving the adjustment of the investment policy of the Project of High-tech Essential Oil, Medicinal Herbs, and Functional Food Production Complex in Thanh Thuy Commune. Accordingly, this project was renamed the Project of High-quality Green Tea Planting, Production, and Processing Complex for Export.
In addition, the scale and capacity of the project have also been adjusted, in which the total expected land area is more than 33.7 hectares (excluding the cultural house land area). The main works include: Processing factory, office area, warehouse, nursery garden, tea growing land, internal roads and yards. The project capacity is 4,000 tons of tea products/year.
However, the total investment of the project has been adjusted down to 170.35 billion VND. In particular, the project implementation progress has been adjusted to be completed in the first quarter of 2023. And up to this point, the project land is still a wasteland, overgrown with weeds and a place for people to graze their livestock.
It is worth mentioning that in Decision No. 39 approving the adjustment of the investment policy, the Provincial People's Committee requested VN Nam Dan Van An Company Limited to urgently complete investment procedures to implement the project; the project is only allowed when the investor has completed all procedures and conditions according to the provisions of law; Focus resources on construction and completion of the project on schedule. In case of not following the schedule as prescribed, the investor must be responsible for the costs incurred...
After adjusting the investment policy, on February 24, 2022, the Provincial People's Committee also issued Decision No. 454/QD-UBND approving the adjustment of the 1/500 scale detailed construction planning of this project, to replace Decision 5860/QD-UBND dated December 7, 2013 approving the 1/500 scale detailed construction planning of the Project. Complex of high-tech essential oils, medicinal herbs, and functional foods in Thanh Thuy commune.
The land location has 3 directions: North, East, West bordering Ro River, and the remaining direction is South bordering National Highway 46 to Thanh Thuy Border Gate. The total construction area of the project is more than 1 hectare; the area of nursery garden, garden for growing finished tea trees, yard, traffic roads, landscape trees... is more than 32 hectares.
Further research into Decision No. 454 adjusting the planning issued by the Provincial People's Committee found that the reason for the adjustment was presented as being that in the process of researching and completing legal procedures to implement the project according to the approved planning, it was found that the climate, soil conditions, and farming practices of the people in Thanh Thuy commune were not suitable for growing and processing essential oils and medicinal herbs.
In addition, the investment project has been adjusted to grow, produce, and process high-quality tea for export and remove the cultural house area from the project scope (Decision 39-PV). Therefore, the investor has adjusted the project planning in accordance with the adjusted investment policy to serve as a basis for implementing the next steps.
Obviously, this reason is not convincing, because the investor is the one who understands better than anyone the natural and human conditions in this area before making the investment. And with the adjustment to the Project of a complex of planting, producing and processing high-quality green tea for export in a locality where there are many private tea factories and tea enterprises of organizations and enterprises that are operating very "struggling", is it feasible, or should we continue to "enclose the land"?
Previously, in December 2023, Nghe An Newspaper reported on the project to build a factory to produce Japanese green tea and high-quality green tea in Long Son commune (Anh Son), by Viet Phat Trading and Service Joint Stock Company (headquartered in Hanoi), which was approved by the Provincial People's Committee in 2014 on the land of the Youth Volunteer Force 1, but then "died young". This also poses lessons for local authorities at all levels in investment management (especially for large-scale projects that have not been implemented on schedule for many years), avoiding wasting land resources.
