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Unfinished resorts leave locals jobless
Many local residents displaced or otherwise affected by tourism development projects along the coastal road linking Da Nang’s Son Tra Penisula with the ancient city of Hoi An remain jobless after several years.
One of the main reasons for this is that the beach resort projects have been left unfinished.
Although most of the beaches along the coastal road have been allocated to tourism development projects, little attention has been paid by concerned authorities to the progress of construction work after the ground-breaking ceremonies.
Residents now believe that the investors/developers of these beach resorts are speculators who applied for the projects only to obtain the licence for using land plots along the coastal road.
The developer of the project to build Bai But Tourism Complex on Da Nang’s Son tra Penisula received the land in mid-2003 and broke ground for construction in April 2004. But no progress has been made for constructing the VND300 billion (US$17 million) project whose first phase was scheduled for completion in early 2005.
The owner of the $30 million Sunrise Resort project, which was licensed by Quang Nam Provincial authority over two years ago, is just preparing "ground leveling" steps.
Construction of the $17 million Hoang Tra Resort, scheduled for completion in 2008 and become operational in early 2009, remains incomplete.
The Hoa Hai Ward in Da Nang’s Ngu Hanh Son District is now home to 12 resort projects with a total of 50,000 guest rooms. For these projects, 27 households of Tan Tra Hamlet had to move and hand over their land.
Hoang Thi Hong, a 57-year-old resident at the Ha My Dong Re-settlement Area in Dien Duong Commune, Quang Nam Province’s Dien Ban District, said: "Our land has been claimed back for a resort project. We are now worried about how to get a job to survive... "
Hong said her 10-member family had a house built on a 1,100-sq.m plot of land and 900sq.m of paddy field. She was paid VND100 million and 700sq.m. of land in the re-settlement area as compensation.
Since her resettlement in the new residential area, members of Hong’s family no longer do farm work because they have no more land. Meanwhile, none of her three sons have been employed by the resorts located on the land where her home once stood.
Hong said more than 30 families in the resettlement area were in a similar situation.
Le Van Khue, deputy chairman of Dien Duong Commune People’s Committee, was quoted by Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper as saying: "Resort projects have occupied plots of land and left it fallow, turning thousands of local residents into landless, jobless farmers."
Khue said he believed many other localities in the country were facing the same problem as Da Nang and Quang Nam.
Unpaid guest workers
Exporters who sent Vietnamese labourers to Russia must be responsible for the salaries which were not paid to Vietnamese guest workers by Russian employer.
The statement was made by Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, head of the Overseas Labour Management Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Welfare, after two groups of Vietnamese guest labourers repatriated ahead of schedule a few months ago.
Quynh said the Vietnamese labour exporters must fulfill their commitments included in the contracts they signed with labourers.
These guest workers were sent to Russia by the Viet Nam Steel Corporation’s Centre for Overseas Labour Co-operation and the trading and labour export company Vinahandcoop.
Due to various reasons, the Russian employers refused to pay salaries to most of these Vietnamese labourers, but gave them punishment instead, local media reported.
To defend the workers, the Overseas Labour Management Department has decided to suspend Vinahandcoop’s operation for six months beginning July 7. The company was told to liquidate the labour contracts after fulfilling all clauses included in the contracts.
The department also asked the Overseas Labour Co-operation Centre to take similar steps to liquidate contracts with the repatriated labourers.
In case labourers’ interests was not defended and labour contracts could not be liquidated, the recruiters could be brought to court, Quynh said.
"Labour exporters must be fully responsible for the damage they caused to guest workers," he added.
Rising car sales
Despite the great difficulties facing the world’s carmakers during the ongoing global economic crisis, car sales in Viet Nam has been rising over the last two months.
According to the Viet Nam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), its 16 members sold 10,555 automobiles in August, an increase of 31 per cent compared with the same period last year. Their sales amounted to 10,840 units in July, a year-on-year increase of 26 per cent.
Many customers said they had to wait for several months to receive their cars after signing purchase contracts with carmakers.
Those who order either a Honda Civic or a CRV will have to wait two months for delivery while Toyota models take three months. Ford Viet Nam said they had received some 400 orders for their Focus model, but these cars could only be delivered to customers in January 2010 at the earliest.
Ngo Tuyet Ngan, sales manager of Ford Viet Nam, said the joint venture company had not only re-recruited the 20 per cent of its staff who were slashed in 2008 due to the economic crisis but was also looking for newcomers to boost production. To meet the rising demand of the local market, the company is expanding production by 25 per cent this month.
"The rush for cars this year was out of manufacturers’ expectation," said Phan Hong Hai, deputy head of Toyota Viet Nam’s Marketing Division. He added that Toyota had increased production from 70 units per day in March to 90 units in June and recently to 150 units per day in September.
According to VAMA, many Vietnamese customers’ would like to buy cars before the year-end deadline of licensing and VAT tax hike.
The market has undergone big changes since the luxury tax law came into effect and the car ownership registration fee was slashed by 50 per cent in HCM City and Ha Noi in late April.
Automakers attribute the improvement in car consumption to the Government’s proactive measures including the 50 per cent VAT and 50 per cent ownership tax reductions.
The auto registration fee is down to 5-6 per cent of the list price, creating an
incentive for boosting sales and helping the industry cope with the local economic slowdown resulting from the global recession. The lower fees are valid until the end of this year.
In 2010, some tax incentives will be stopped, prompting many people to buy cars this year.
Hai was quoted by Sai Gon Marketing newspaper as saying that the local customers’ hunt for cars was just a ‘short-term fever’. In 2010, when the incentives are removed, the local automobile market would return to normal, he added.
Le Hung Vong
vietnamnews
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