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No new golf course licences for now
The Government has decided to suspend issuing licences for golf courses. This is in response to rising public concern about their environmental and social impacts.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung instructed that no new licences would be issued pending a Government review of all existing golf course projects, said Phan Huu Thang, head of the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
"Golf course projects located on areas under rice cultivation must be unconditionally stopped," Thang told local reporters.
Thang said the licensing of new golf course projects would only be resumed after MPI and provincial authorities submit reports to the Government and the Prime Minister with concrete information.
The number of golf course projects licences has gone up sharply since January 2006, when provincial authorities were first given the authority to do so.
Thang said Vietnam had 123 golf course projects covering 38,000 ha, including 78 projects which had been licensed. The remaining were either at the MOU stage or still being negotiated.
The 13 operational courses were all licensed before 2006.
Thang said the MPI was informed that the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Long An had 13 golf-course projects, but when the ministry conducted an inspection a few months ago, they found the province had licensed only 4 of which one would be revoked soon.
"To map out a master plan for golf-course development, concerned authorities must have a long-term vision of the future when Vietnam is better integrated with the global community," said Thang.
He added that provincial authorities and other concerned agencies would submit a report later this year on the pros and cons of golf courses. The negative impacts these projects would have on the environment was of particular concerns.
The MPI is set to submit a proposal this month on procedures for golf course licensing to ensure that provincial authorities are more selective about investment in them and, at the same time, prevent the use of land licensed for golf course projects being used for other business purposes.
It was discovered that several licensed projects used a small proportion of the land for the golf course itself, and the rest for other forms of development including villas.
Authorities in Long An Province have decided to relocate a 300-ha golf course project that they had licensed earlier.
The land originally earmarked for the course was under hi-yield rice cultivation in My Phu Commune, Thu Thua District. The project has now been relocated to 300 ha of bare-hill in Duc Hoa District's Tan My Commune.
VNN
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