4:09:16 PM | 27/5/2010
Hanoi’s inspectors have found legal violations involving thousands of hectares of land in Ba Vi district, where land prices have been skyrocketing after the government announced a draft plan to build the national administrative center there, state media reported.
The most serious violator is Viet – Mong JS Company, which received 941 hectares of land from the authorities for an ecological tea tourism project in 2008, but has illegally sold 455.6 hectares to individual investors.
Many others are also found to have turned farming land into residential land, which violates the Land Law adopted in 2003, the Vietnam News Agency said, blaming the violations as a reason for the on-going land price fever in the district.
The inspectors came up with the findings after an investigation started last September, noting that many violations had been found in 2005, but have not been punished.
Meanwhile, local farmers were disappointed after the authorities gave their farming land to private businesses such as Viet – Mong JSC for large-scaled projects.
Many businesses have been cooperating with local authorities to grab land from farmers at low prices during rapid urbanization, which is causing social tensions, the newspaper warned.
Vietnam is among 20 countries with the world’s highest real estate prices, said Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam in a recent conference.
Analysts blamed excessive speculation for the situation, which is hurting house seekers and the whole economy in one of the poorest countries in Asia with an annual GDP per capita of some US$1,000. (VNA, Vietnam Economic Times)
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