Inspection on Đà Nẵng’s projects begins

ĐÀ NẴNG — The Government Inspectorate of Việt Nam (GIV) will begin inspection on the controversial Đa Phước International Urban project, along with all investment and construction projects on the protected Sơn Trà Peninsula.

The inspection will consider land use and land management practices and forest and environmental protection on the peninsula, 10km from the city.

At a working session with the city’s people’s committee yesterday, it was revealed that the inspection would be carried out in 45 days on instructions from Deputy Prime Minister Trương Hòa Bình.

The 17-member inspection team will verify land management and land use practices of investment and construction projects on the peninsula, and inspect the growth of the Đa Phước Urban project in Đà Nẵng over the 2003-16 period.

The inspection of projects in Đà Nẵng was spurred by public concerns over mass development of buildings, hotels, resorts and villas on the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve on the peninsula.

Members of the public also called for a halt of the tourism master plan, which had aimed to build 1,920 villas, 24 bungalows and 1,600 luxury hotel rooms by 2030 on the 4,439ha Sơn Trà Nature Reserve.

In August, the Prime Minister asked the Đà Nẵng City’s People’s Committee to clear up the Sơn Trà Master Plan and ensure it fully complied with laws on forest and environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, defence and security.

But the city administration failed to comply with the Prime Minister’s request for detailed plans to resolve the clash between the need to preserve the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve and the desire to accelerate tourism development at the site.

According to a 2004 law on forest protection and a 2008 law on biodiversity conservation, all land-use changes and forest land encroachment in the nature reserve are banned. Any change of land-use purpose in the Sơn Trà forest must be decided by the Prime Minister.

Up to now, 18 out of 25 planned hotels and resorts on the Sơn Trà Mountain have been approved by the city on a total of 1,220ha, while 137 private villas, of which more than 20 villas have already been built, are planned on 2.4ha in the reserve.

The reserve is unique in Việt Nam and the world. Its biodiversity ranges from primary forests to ocean dunes, with more than 1,000 plants and 370 animal species.

More than 1,300 red-shanked douc langurs (Pygathryx nemaeus), which are critically endangered and found only in east-central Laos and Việt Nam, live in the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve.

Last month, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc issued an official warning to Đà Nẵng City’s People’s Committee Chairman Huỳnh Đức Thơ over joint responsibility for violations and shortcomings in land and urban management.

The developing Đa Phước International Urban Project was suspended in April when the city’s construction department deemed the project’s environmental assessment report incomplete and uncovered and the use of illegal sand for sea embankments for the project. — Quang