Land-use projects stuck in red tape
Land-use projects stuck in red tape
Enterprises have not benefitted from the Government's Resolution 43/NQ-CP, issued more than two months ago to reform the administrative procedures for investment projects that involve land use.
The resolution was issued in June, with focus on reforming administrative procedures for land-use projects, to improve the business environment by reducing the waiting time and costs for project investors.
With the removal of 12 types of administrative procedures and simplification of many others, the duration for the implementation of administrative procedures for land-use projects was cut by half from 155 to 865 working days previously, to 80 to 480 working days.
This was good news to investors during a difficult economic situation as the resolution was expected to help ensure transparency and investors' rights, while the concerned authorities could have a common voice for controversial issues such as land auctions.
However, experts said that many problems still need to be tackled to ensure that the resolution is applicable in reality for improving the business environment.
According to Deputy Director of HCM City Department and Planning and Investment Le Thi Huynh Mai, the resolution failed to define specifically what land-use projects were, causing difficulties during its implementation.
The resolution has already repealed the investment certification procedures for land-use projects which were not included in the provisory investment fields. But it did not point out whether projects in industrial or export processing zones needed investment certification, Mai added.
There were also overlaps in investment procedures regulated by different laws, according to Deputy Director of the central Phu Yen Province's Department of Planning and Investment.
The management of investment projects is currently regulated by many laws, including Investment Law, Construction Law, Land Law and Environment Law.
Chairman of NHS Construction Investment Company Nguyen Hoai Nam was worried about the inconsistencies between the resolution and other existing laws which could cause confusion.
In addition, the lack of coordination among relevant authorities caused difficulties to project investors.
According to Ngo Da Tho, president of the Phu Yen Business Association, enterprises are forced to spend a lot of time with different departments for the implementation of investment projects, even as business opportunities pass them by.
He said any disagreements between the concerned departments might cause the projects to get stuck and investors would be forced to wait.
Chu Duc Luong, chairman of the Phu My Group, said some projects had to wait for at least two years to complete administrative procedures, while they needed only nine months to complete construction and make the projects operational.
A tourism project of the Sao Viet Company in Phu Yen Province's Tuy Hoa City has already spent four years in completing land-use procedures.
In order to assess the implementation of the resolution, experts said the relevant departments must coordinate with each other to simplify administrative procures for land-use projects because just one problem could slow down the process.
bizhub
