Inadequacies in the trillion-dollar car project of Toan Cau Company

Many disadvantages of "mining in the city"

Recently, the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province received a document requesting to reclaim excess land during the implementation of the automobile manufacturing and assembly project in Dai Loc commune, Hau Loc district, invested by Toan Cau Audiovisual Entertainment Joint Stock Company (Toan Cau Company).

According to the investor's construction plan, during the process of leveling and lowering the height of the project, it is expected that there will be more than 5.5 million m3 of surplus land. To "handle" this surplus land volume, in October 2023, Manh Nguyen Tien Company Limited (the unit that the investor signed a contract to construct the leveling and site preparation package for the project) submitted an application to reclaim surplus land at this project.

However, the excess land volume at the project is too large, up to more than 5.5 million cubic meters, along with the project's location near residential areas, also entails many risks such as environmental pollution, loss of security and order, traffic pressure, etc., making the recovery process require a lot of time to evaluate and carefully consider.

The location of the area to reclaim more than 5.5 million cubic meters of land at the automobile project of Global Audiovisual Entertainment Joint Stock Company is very close to the residential area and National Highway 1A.

According to some local residents shared with Nguoi Dua Tin , when they learned about the planned exploitation and transportation of more than 5.5 million cubic meters of soil at the project, people in the neighboring areas expressed concern about the risk of disrupting their daily lives. In addition, the project's location is close to National Highway 1A, so during the exploitation and transportation process, the traffic volume in this area will also increase, posing a risk of traffic safety on the route.

“When we heard about the big car project, we were very happy. However, when it comes to moving more than 5.5 million cubic meters of soil out of the project, we are very worried about dust and traffic accidents when many trucks carry soil in the area where we live. Not to mention, the project area is near the special national relic of Ba Trieu Temple, and dust and smoke exploitation can greatly affect this special spiritual place. Meanwhile, Vinaxuki Company has also built basic factories in the past, but there has been no activity of reclaiming soil to move it out,” said a resident in Trieu Loc commune, Hau Loc.

In addition, due to the huge reserves of over 5.5 million cubic meters of soil, there is a risk of disrupting and "distorting" mineral business activities and mine auctions in the area, and the biggest impact is probably on the less favorable locations of soil mines in the western regions of Thanh Hoa province.

In fact, according to Nguoi Dua Tin , in Thanh Hoa province, there are currently many mines being exploited (with average reserves of many mines ranging from 300,000 - 500,000 cubic meters) in the western districts such as Thach Thanh, Vinh Loc, far from residential areas, far from large urban centers, which will encounter many difficulties in consumption over long distances, incurring many costs.

Meanwhile, the above-mentioned automobile project has a "prime" location, near rapidly urbanizing areas such as Hoang Hoa, Sam Son City... and key traffic projects with great demand for land leveling. Therefore, the excess land in this project will be easily moved to serve the land leveling needs in the above-mentioned areas. Therefore, the recovery of more than 5.5 million cubic meters of land without auction also has the risk of causing negative impacts on the auction of mines in these areas, as many investors will find it less attractive due to competition from the recovery of land for the above-mentioned automobile project.

Road to the car project area of ​​Global Audiovisual Entertainment Joint Stock Company.

In a quick discussion with Nguoi Dua Tin about the relocation of more than 5.5 million cubic meters of soil out of the project area, Mr. Nguyen Minh Hoang, Chairman of Hau Loc District People's Committee, said that the province recently issued a document requesting the district to study and clarify the requirements according to regulations for the relocation of large volumes of soil in the project area to the outside, ensuring the feasibility of the project. Therefore, the district is implementing it.

Regarding the risk of environmental pollution, as well as increased pressure on traffic volume during the movement of large volumes of soil as mentioned above, the leader of Hau Loc district admitted that the risks of environmental pollution, as well as increased security and order issues in the area are inevitable, especially in densely populated areas.

“Certainly, the process of moving such a large volume of soil will increase the problems of dust, environmental pollution as well as pressure on security, order and traffic safety in the area. However, the specific impact needs to be assessed quantitatively and qualitatively by the authorities. The district is studying and evaluating the plan to ensure the implementation of soil movement out of the project,” Mr. Hoang shared.

The risk of "hiding" mineral exploitation without auction from land confiscation?

According to Nguoi Dua Tin 's research, Thanh Hoa has had a very impressive economic growth rate in recent years. In 2023, this locality had an economic growth rate of more than 7%, ranking 3rd in the group of localities with the largest economic scale in the country, GRDP reached 280,000 billion VND, 1.5 times higher than in 2020.

With rapid development, the urbanization speed in this locality has also accelerated day by day, leading to an increase in the demand for construction and construction materials such as soil, stone, sand, gravel, etc., especially in key "urbanized" areas such as Sam Son City, Hoang Hoa District, etc.

In the spirit of ensuring supply to serve development needs, in recent years, Thanh Hoa province has drastically accelerated the planning and exploration of mineral mines for common materials. In particular, the thorough implementation of mine auctions has helped find investors with mining capacity as well as avoid losses and increase state budget revenue in resource exploitation.

Along with the bright spots, Thanh Hoa province has also shown signs of taking advantage of the policy of collecting excess soil and rock during project implementation to illegally exploit resources.

In fact, in recent times in Thanh Hoa province, there have been many cases of taking advantage of mineral exploitation and being punished for basic errors such as: exploitation outside the boundary, exceeding reserves, violating regulations, wrong time, wrong plan... accompanied by dust, environmental pollution, and technical infrastructure degradation.

For example, in 2022 and 2023, the authorities of Thanh Hoa province discovered and handled many violations in the process of land recovery such as: the land recovery project in Cam Long and Cam Thuy communes of Hoang Duc Investment and Trade Development Joint Stock Company; discovered and punished a subject in Thanh Minh commune, Thach Thanh district for taking advantage of lowering the height to illegally exploit land out of the locality; punished Ngoc Yen Construction Investment Joint Stock Company for exploiting outside the boundary...

Recently, the interdisciplinary delegation of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE) of Thanh Hoa province inspected the compliance with the law at land "collection" points in Tho Xuan district. The inspection results showed that, at the time of inspection, most of the collection units had violations such as: the collection point in Sao Vang town, Tho Xuan district, Dang Khoa Construction Transport Company Limited; the collection point of Hung Quan TH Company Limited, the collection point of Nam Phong Company Limited, the collection point of Van Dung Construction and Trade Company Limited, all in Xuan Phu commune, Tho Xuan district.

Faced with the above reality, Thanh Hoa province's authorities have continuously issued many documents directing the strengthening of inspection and supervision of mineral exploitation activities in the area.

It can be seen that when implementing "regular" mineral exploitation according to the mine auction process with many strict appraisal steps over a long period of time, along with transparent and competitive mine auction activities, with modern and safe exploitation measures... while mineral exploitation "under the guise" of salvage activities during project implementation is considered easier, meaning lower costs.

It is expected that more than 5.5 million cubic meters of surplus land will be recovered from the leveling process to implement the project of Global Audiovisual Entertainment Joint Stock Company.

Returning to the billion-dollar automobile project of Global Audiovisual Entertainment Joint Stock Company, on the investor side of the above project, according to Nguoi Dua Tin 's investigation, Global Audiovisual Entertainment Joint Stock Company, although being the investor of an ambitious automobile project with an investment capital of thousands of billions of VND, before the time Thanh Hoa province approved the implementation of the automobile manufacturing and assembly project, had very little information in activities related to the automobile industry and almost "blank slate" of information when conducting basic searches on the Internet. Therefore, the real ambition of Global Audiovisual Entertainment Joint Stock Company in this project is a "mystery" that Thanh people are looking forward to being answered in the near future.

Talking to Nguoi Dua Tin about legal issues in mineral exploitation activities, Lawyer Le Van Thien, Director of Khang Loi Law Company Limited (Thanh Hoa City) said that applying for a license to exploit land mines is a relatively "difficult" process, so there are many risks that many units take advantage of the policy of exploiting minerals during the process of leveling and lowering the height to hide behind large-scale mineral exploitation.

Basically, to be able to exploit minerals "regularly" in the form of mining, there will be many basic procedures and documents such as: Application for a Mineral Exploitation License; Map of the mineral exploitation area; Decision approving mineral reserves of a competent state agency; Mineral exploitation investment project with approval decision and copy of investment certificate; Environmental impact assessment report or environmental protection commitment; Copy of business registration certificate; In case of winning the auction for mineral exploitation rights, there must be a document confirming the winning auction; Document confirming the owner's equity according to the provisions of Point c, Clause 2, Article 53 of this Law. At the same time, after exploitation, there are still steps of procedures for environmental remediation, site clearance, etc.

However, the dossier for granting a license to exploit basic minerals includes: Application for granting a license to exploit basic minerals; Map of the mineral exploitation area; Investment project for exploiting mineral resources with approval decision; copy of investment certificate; Environmental impact assessment report or environmental protection commitment; Copy of business registration certificate. Thus, to be granted a license to exploit minerals in the form of mines, investors must go through many procedural steps.

Meanwhile, in Thanh Hoa, to increase the efficiency of budget collection from mining, investors must go through a fierce auction process, helping to increase the State's revenue by a large amount of money.

Mineral recovery will have fewer procedures, faster approval time, simpler exploitation methods..., from which, there is a risk of abusing mineral recovery for fragmented exploitation, reducing costs. More worryingly, these recovery points are often located in residential areas, so it is easy to cause problems with social security, environmental pollution, exploitation plans... which can negatively affect the lives of people around.

"Therefore, with the responsibility of advising management, competent authorities need to carefully consider before deciding to grant licenses for exploitation to ensure compliance with legal regulations and harmonize the interests of people in the surrounding area," said Lawyer Thien.

Viet Phuong

Source: https://www.nguoiduatin.vn/thanh-hoa-bat-cap-tai-du-an-o-to-nghin-ty-cua-cong-ty-toan-cau-a668804.html