Ashui.com

The government is failing to put tourism property projects under the microscope.

On September 15, 2010 the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) enacted Document 6536/BKH-TTr requiring inspections of tourism property projects across the country. Accordingly, the people’s committees in provinces and cities had to report the progress of such projects to the MPI by November 31, 2010.

The move came amid a recent boom in development of vacation homes and tourism properties across the country.

However, the MPI only received four reports from Thanh Hoa, Tra Vinh, Binh Phuoc and Bac Giang which were not considered investment hotspots in tourism property development.

For example, of 36 licenced projects in central Thanh Hoa province, only one project - Van Chai resort developed by An Binh Mai Company Limited was operational, 12 projects under construction, 17 others in legal setup stage, and the remaining six just got investment orientations approval.

The province had set aside a budget of around VND175 billion ($8.97 million) for its tourism properties from 2006-2010.

Northern Bac Giang province had 12 tourism property projects capitalised around $68 million and had eaten up more than 10.6 million square metres. Of them, one project was operational and 10 others are under construction.

Southern Tra Vinh province has so far licenced four projects, while Binh Phuoc is attracting investments for its three tourism properties valued at $105.07 million and covering 5,237 hectares.

Huu Tuan