HCM City to revoke licences of 48 delayed projects
HCM CITY (VNS)— About 48 delayed projects in HCM City for which less than 50 per cent of the site has been cleared will have their licenses revoked this year, municipal authorities said on Tuesday .
At a meeting held to collect opinions of district-level People’s Committees and relevant departments on measures to deal with delayed projects, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that 30 housing and 18 production and trade projects will have their licenses revoked.
Delayed projects in which more than 50 per cent of site has been cleared will be given until this year end to complete implementation, the department said.
Most district representatives agreed with the measures, but some suggested the decisions should be based on the scale of the delayed projects.
They said some large projects which have an area of more than 20ha might have less than 50 per cent of their sites cleared, but this area would still be larger than that of small projects with site-clearance rates of more than 50 per cent.
They also noted that many projects have been delayed because of investors’ weak financial capacity, a factor that would be difficult for districts to identify and assess.
District representatives petitioned the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to co-operate with other relevant departments to appraise investors’ financial capacities before deciding to revoke delayed projects. They said this would help authorities take the right decision on whether or not to revoke a project’s license.
They also said some public projects like the one to expand the Ha Noi Highway in Thu Duc District, a green park project in District 6 and a culture centre in District 8 should not be cancelled or have their licenses revoked despite having a site-clearance rate of less than 50 per cent.
Dao Anh Kiet, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said if districts did not act strongly, it would be difficult to thoroughly resolve the problem of delayed projects.
The department’s point of view is that if investors do not have the financial wherewithal, they should let others with stronger capacities to implement the delayed projects, he said.
The department has set up a list of delayed projects, but districts can petition to add others to the list, he said. They can also take responsibility and ask that delayed projects are earmarked for continued implementation, he said.
He requested districts to compile their list of delayed projects and submit it to the department by March 4.
The department will propose to the city People’s Committee detailed measures to deal with delayed projects by the end of this quarter. The list of delayed projects will also be made public, he said. — VNS