Golf club expansion under scrutiny

The public has questioned the legality of reclaiming cropping land for the expansion of Long Thanh Golf Club in southern Dong Nai Province.
The 16ha expansion by Long Thanh Golf Investment and Trade Joint Stock Co following its July 2009 approval by the Dong Nai Province People’s Committee, may have been done without Government approval and against guidelines from the province’s People’s Council.
In March 1999, the Government approved a 204ha-land allocation for the establishment of Long Thanh Golf Club course. But in June 2005, the Dong Nai People’s Committee acted independently to allow the company to expand the property by140ha, with more than half of the added area approved for construction of 866 luxury villas.
After the luxury villas were completed in early 2009, the company asked for an additional 870ha, to more than triple the size of the golf complex to 1,200ha including a residential area and an eco-tourism zone.
As most of the land that was requested for the golf-complex’s expansion was agricultural land, related ministries warned the Dong Nai People’s Committee of the negative impacts of reclaiming land from farmers for golf development.
"The reclaiming of 870ha for project would affect the locals’ lives and environment," the Ministry of Planning and Investment said in an official letter to the province’s People’s Committee.
According to the guideline by the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry, "land that able to cultivate two rice crops per year could not be reclaimed for projects."
In June 2009, Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai ordered the People’s Committee to put a hold on the approval for the requested expansion of the golf course, until the Government approved the province’s long-term planning proposal on the use of agricultural land by 2020.
The Dong Nai People’s Council then issued a resolution dated July 16 about the issue, which also specifically stated that the People’s Committee must delay the approval process of granting the requested agricultural land to the golf course owners until the planning proposal had been approved by Government.
In July, the People’s Committee, acting without government or the provincial People’s Council’s approval, granted the company rights to develop 16ha for the complex project.
The land, which is mainly located in Long Thanh District’s Phuoc Tan Ward, was being used for cultivation by local farmers. They received VND70,000 compensation per square metre.