Phu Quoc urged to stop approving new tourism plans

With many investors remaining tardy in implementing their plans after getting approval, the management board for Phu Quoc Island development has demanded local authorities to stop green-lighting new tourism projects and revoke licenses of slow-moving developers.
Although many investors have been granted permission to carry out projects on most of the prime positions on Phu Quoc Island such as Bai Truong, Bai Dai, Bai Thom and Vung Bau Beaches, most of them have yet to start any construction work.

At the Bai Truong Beach, for instance, most of the investors did not comply with the authorities’ deadline of December 15 last year in settling the compensation and clearance fees.

They demanded for an extension to the first quarter of this year.

But when the authorities accepted a new deadline of February 25 this year, many investors turned out to be financially incapable of carrying out their projects.

For instance, Dong Nam Construction Co Ltd, which was licensed to build an eco-tourism area at Bai Truong Beach, failed to pay the 10 billion dong (US$500,000) required for site clearance.

Other investors including Thai Nam Co Ltd and Bien Xanh Co Ltd have also had their licenses cancelled due to their failing to pay site clearance and compensation fees.

Nguyen Van Sau, deputy head of the management board for the investment and development of Phu Quoc Island, said his board would withdraw licenses of five others investors if they could not pay the fee after the deadline of this month’s end.

Sau said many businesses were still seeking government’s approval to invest in Phu Quoc Island, while there were not much land left and many approved projects have been making slow progress.

The management board thus demanded that Kien Giang People’s Committee stop approving new projects and urged the licensed ones to speed up their progress.

“We need to review the investors’ capacity to find those who are really capable of carrying out the projects and eliminate those who are not,” he said.

However, Le Van Thi, head of the provincial People’s Committee, said the committee would not stop approving new projects but would tighten the requirements for the businesses to have the investment licenses.

“We will require the investors to make an investment deposit costing up to 5 percent of the project investment,” he explained.

“The investors have to guarantee to complete the projects on time; otherwise they will lose the investment deposit.”
Tuoi Tre

Tags: Phu Quoc Island