Nghe An terminates 138 projects, reclaims 34,500 hectares of land

Currently, in the province, there are still projects that are slow to progress or not implemented, affecting the investment and business environment of the province. Nghe An Newspaper had a dialogue with comrade Nguyen Van Do - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Director of the Department of Planning and Investment on this issue.

PV:Dear comrade, along with promoting investment attraction, in 2017 the province's policy is to vigorously implement the recovery of slow-progressing projects. Could you tell Nghe An Newspaper readers more about this?

Comrade Nguyen Van Do:Investment attraction is one of the important tasks in the province's socio-economic development strategy. As a result, in 2017, 175 projects were approved for investment with a total newly registered and increased capital of 14,854.09 billion VND (an increase of 34 projects compared to 2016, but a decrease of 18,929 billion VND in registered capital compared to 2016 because in 2016 there were many projects with large investment scale).

Up to now, there are 1,096 valid projects with a total registered capital of VND313,000 billion, of which FDI has 88 projects/2,047.69 million USD. Besides many projects being implemented quickly, there are still projects being implemented slowly or not implemented, affecting the investment and business environment of the province.

Provincial leaders inspected the road connecting National Highway 1A with Nghia Dan, Thai Hoa Town. Photo: Thanh Le

To improve the effectiveness of investment attraction, the Department of Planning and Investment has advised the Provincial People's Committee to establish an interdisciplinary inspection team to inspect slow-progressing and unimplemented investment projects in Nghe An province.

Accordingly, from 2014 to 2017, the Provincial People's Committee established 4 interdisciplinary inspection teams to conduct 357 project inspections on 310 projects (including 168 projects that had been allocated land or leased land and 142 projects that had not been allocated land or leased land). Specifically, 84 projects were revoked or cancelled (including 19 projects that had been allocated land or leased land and 65 projects that had not been allocated land or leased land).

In 2017 alone, the provincial People's Committee advised on the revocation and cancellation of 30 projects. Cumulatively up to now, the provincial People's Committee has issued decisions to terminate operations, cancel legal documents, revoke investment certificates, and reclaim land of 138 projects with a total area of ​​nearly 34,500 hectares.

PV:According to you, what is the main reason for projects being behind schedule or not being implemented?

Comrade Nguyen Van Do:Up to 80% of projects behind schedule are related to site clearance and this is the main reason that makes both the provincial government and investors tired.

In addition, partly due to the unstable and frequently changing land, planning and compensation policies on site clearance. Many regulations are not suitable to reality and have many different interpretations, so they are difficult to apply; policies issued later are much more beneficial than policies issued earlier, leading to difficulties in handling transitional compensation between the old and new policies.

In the first 8 months of 2017, 13 slow-progressing investment projects were revoked.

(Baonghean.vn) - News from the Provincial People's Committee said that in the first 8 months of the year, Nghe An issued 13 decisions to revoke 13 projects due to slow progress or lack of implementation.

Some investors also invest in many projects. In addition, the real estate market is sluggish, bank interest rates are high, product demand is low, etc. Therefore, many investors cannot implement, leaving the project to drag on for many years.

Some investors have weak capacity and invest according to trends, so when there are market fluctuations, they have difficulty in raising capital or changing investment strategies and goals; or some investors do not implement investment but deliberately hold land to transfer projects for profit.

On the other hand, the investment procedures as prescribed in legal documents are still lengthy, the number of procedures is still large, and they are carried out at many different agencies, which also affects the progress and investment opportunities of enterprises. To carry out an investment project, investors must complete at least 10 groups of administrative procedures at many different agencies from commune to provincial level, so the time is often long and interrupted in many stages. There are projects that take from 1-3 years to complete the procedures.

For example, currently, with 10 procedures, the total implementation time is from 129 - 225 working days (about 5.8 - 10.2 months) excluding compensation, support and resettlement time; 309 - 405 working days (from 14.1 months to 18.4 months) including compensation, support and resettlement time (compensation and land acquisition procedures alone take 6 months).

However, in reality, the time to carry out the above procedures at the agencies is sometimes longer than the regulations. This is also one of the main reasons why project implementation after granting investment certificates is still slow.

Located in a prime location, the BMC Cua ​​Lo Palaza Project, which was approved for detailed planning in 2008, is still an empty land. Photo: Thanh Le

PV:The province’s policy is to resolutely handle projects that are behind schedule. So, in your opinion, to improve the investment environment, what key solutions will the province implement in the coming time?

Comrade Nguyen Van Do:In my opinion, first of all, we must strictly assess the financial capacity of investors and improve the quality of investor selection by searching for and selecting potential, branded investors.

At the same time, promulgate regulations on bidding to select investors to implement projects using land in locations with high commercial value according to Decree 30/2015/ND-CP dated March 17, 2015 of the Government detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Bidding on investor selection.

A behind-progress project in Nghi Phu Commune, Vinh City. Photo: Tran Chau.

In particular, it is necessary to continue to deposit funds to ensure project implementation right from the investment policy stage to ensure the implementation of investment projects using land in the province. In particular, investors are required to deposit funds to ensure investment, commit to the government, demonstrate financial capacity, and capital mobilization plans for the projects to be implemented.

Conduct reconciliation and confirm the accuracy of financial reports between the documents submitted to the investment registration agency and the Tax Department. Along with that, it is necessary to enhance the responsibility of all levels, sectors and especially localities in monitoring and urging the implementation of investment projects.

Assign departments, branches and localities to continue reviewing projects showing signs of slow progress or non-implementation, violating legal regulations to grasp and classify projects, reasons for slow implementation to conduct inspections and advise on handling in the direction, removing difficulties and obstacles of projects to speed up implementation progress.

On the other hand, the province will focus on resolving the causes of slow progress such as site clearance and procedures. Prioritize resources for site clearance to create clean land for investors.

Implement land use rights auctions for land funds subject to auction; conduct bidding to select investors for profitable land plots with good locations... to promote land use efficiency and select investors with real capacity.

The guiding spirit of the Provincial People's Committee is to resolutely withdraw projects that are behind schedule, not implemented, and consider extending them with conditions. The key solution proposed by the province in the coming time is to innovate and attract investment with focus, not to attract investment in a massive and scattered manner.

PV:Thanks comrade!