VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), which is now drafting the Law on Planning, is attempting to reduce overlapping development plans.

It is expected that Vietnam will have 19,200 development plans in the 2011-2020 period, six times higher than in 2001-2010. More than VND8 trillion has been spent to set up the plans.

The chair of a provincial people’s committee complained that though his province is small, it has 200 development plans.

He said he is always in state of suspense, because he is not sure if the projects he approves will contradict any of the plans. It is difficult for him to remember all the 200 plans.

Dang Huy Dong, MPI’s Deputy Minister, spoke about the man's dilemma at a recent conference about the ‘mushrooming’ of development plans.

Another case was cited by Dong to show the problems in development programming in Vietnam. 

Michael McKenzie, an investor from the US, received an investment certificate in 2004 to develop a resort – South Fork – in Binh Thuan province. The local authorities promised to allocate land to the investor to implement the project.

The problem was that a part of the project’s land belonged to a land plot that the local authorities had allocated to another investor. 

Unable to implement the project, McKenzie sued the government of Vietnam and asked for $3.7 billion for damages, though he had disbursed only $200,000 by that time to implement the project after the licensing.

The investor said the mineral exploitation spoiled his projected tourism complex and made him lose expected profit of $4 billion.

Dong said this was a ‘bloody lesson’ for planning overlap.

MPI said there are too many development plans, and that planning quality is poor.

As MPI wants to remove a series of development plans in some industries, it has faced strong opposition from ministries and branches. This also explains why the draft law on planning still has not received approval over the last five years.

The Ministry of Construction, for example, continues to disagree with MPI draft law because MPI wants to remove construction planning, affirming that this will be a major mistake.

Meanwhile, experts all said that the so-called construction planning is not used in orher parts of the world.

Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, commented that some ministries and branches oppose the draft law because they fear they ‘will lose jobs’ if the law is approved. 

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