Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park loses opportunity to attract investment due to delay in issuing land rental prices

The delay in determining and issuing land rental prices not only loses the opportunity to attract investment in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park, but also causes secondary businesses to file complaints.

Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park. Photo: Le Toan

Land rental price has not been determined for nearly 10 years

In May 2024, Mr. Huynh Bao Duc, General Director of Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park Joint Stock Company (HIPC) continued to sign Document No. 170/2024/CV-HIPC-TGD to send to the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City to "call for help" regarding the determination of land rental prices for Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park. Since 2015, because the procedures for determining land rental prices have not been completed, the legal procedures for granting land use right certificates cannot be carried out, thus attracting investment has encountered many difficulties.

According to HIPC, up to now, there are still 30.1 hectares of land in phase I that do not have a one-time land rental price. The reason is that the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City has not selected a land valuation consultancy; has not organized a bidding to select a land valuation consultancy, so HIPC has not been able to fulfill its financial obligations and has not been granted a land use right certificate. For phase II, there are still 217 hectares that have not been allocated land for lease, while the area without an annual land rental price is 296 hectares.

Although the relevant departments and branches have tried to carry out the procedures for determining the land rental price and the leaders of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee have also chaired meetings to review, urge and resolve problems, from 2015 to now, the land rental price at Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park has not been agreed upon. Therefore, the Phase II of the Project has not yet determined the rental price and has not yet been granted the land use right certificate to HIPC and secondary investors.

In Document No. 170/2024/CV-HIPC-TGĐ, HIPC stated that since 2018, due to the failure to determine the land rental price, HIPC has been forced to stop leasing land to enterprises. Furthermore, enterprises that have leased land in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park Phase II cannot carry out legal procedures to implement investment and construction projects; there is not enough legal basis to carry out secured transactions at credit institutions because they have not been granted land use right certificates.

The biggest consequence of the delay in determining land rental prices is that the large area of vacant industrial land in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park has been left idle for a long time, unable to attract investors, affecting the city's budget revenue. More seriously, this delay has caused great frustration for investors who have been attracted here but have not been granted land use right certificates, seriously affecting the investment environment.

Businesses are upset and send complaints.

Waiting for land use right certificates to be issued, many secondary enterprises renting land in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park, including Korean and Norwegian enterprises, are very upset and have sent complaints to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee.

Ho Chi Minh City has planned Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park with a total area of 2,000 hectares in Nha Be district, invested in 3 phases. Up to now, phase I (311 hectares) and phase II (597 hectares) of the project have built infrastructure and partially leased.

Specifically, in April 2023, 20 enterprises leasing land in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park Phase II simultaneously signed a collective complaint to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee requesting the issuance of land use right certificates to the enterprises. The enterprises cited the terms of the land lease contract in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park Phase II signed in 2017 as stating that HIPC would hand over land use right certificates in 2019.

“Up to now, it has been 6 years since the enterprises signed the contract and paid the full land rent, but the enterprises have not received the land use right certificates. Because they do not have land use right certificates, the enterprises do not have enough legal basis to carry out investment plans, execute credit contracts, etc., causing them to lose the opportunity to expand production development and investment cooperation with partners, especially foreign partners,” the complaint of 20 enterprises in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park stated.

In fact, many enterprises are falling into a state of unbalanced investment, capital management risks leading to bankruptcy or very difficult operations. Up to now, the land lessor, HIPC, has not delivered the land use right certificate to the enterprise, causing damage to economic benefits and other issues related to the issuance of land use right certificates. Meanwhile, the commitment in the contract to compensate and refund for all losses, costs, expenses and damages incurred by the lessee due to HIPC's breach of contract has not been implemented by HIPC.

Therefore, 20 enterprises requested HIPC to continue to strictly implement the commitments in the contract. The enterprises also requested competent authorities to issue land use right certificates to enterprises in Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park Phase II. At the same time, renegotiate with enterprises the maintenance fees (infrastructure maintenance and renovation fees) in accordance with the situation and progress of implementing the commitments in the contract.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/khu-cong-nghiep-hiep-phuoc-mat-co-hoi-thu-hut-dau-tu-vi-cham-ban-hanh-gia-thue-dat-d224117.html