Fore GetAboutIt

Vietnam News and the local press have been full of chatter about the rash of golf course developments being proposed.

None of the articles quite come to grips with the massive LAND GRAB these projects represent or the fact that Vietnam cannot possibly support so many golf courses.

Even the government seems to be questioning the wisdom of 141 golf projects including 18 in Long An province alone!

Surely someone stands to gain from all this, but you can bet it won't be the farmers...

Business Beat raises some good questions:

Keeping an eye on the golf course boom

by Le Hung Vong

In the midst of golf course project fever in many provinces, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung reminded officials that monitoring the licensing of investments and a re-assessment of their efficiency is indispensable.

Viet Nam currently has 141 golf courses projects reserved for 49,300ha of land, including 2,625ha of paddy fields, in 39 provinces and cities. According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), between July 2006 and May 2008, after provincial authorities were allowed to license golf course projects, 104 golf courses were approved. That’s more than one golf course project license per week.

The southern province of Long An has given out 18 licences, including five for Can Giuoc District’s Long Hau Commune.

If all the projects in Can Giuoc District went ahead, 3,200 ha of land would be claimed. Local farmers would only be compensated VND35,000, worth less than 3kg of rice, for each square metre of land.

Still, the compensation rate in Long An’s Can Giuoc is higher than in Da Nang’s Ngu Hanh Son District, only VND28,000 per sq.m.

Few local farmers benefit from these projects, while thousands lose their means of livelihood along with their land.

Most of arable land in Lam Son Commune of Hoa Binh Province’s Luong Son District was reclaimed for the Phuong Hoang Tourism Park and Golf Course, creating thousands of landless and jobless farmers in the process. An official from the Hoa Binh Department of Planning and Investment, who declined to be named, said 20 per cent of households affected by the project spent most of the money they received as compensation in a few months, and have fell into poverty. Less than 20 of those people are employed by the golf course.

Similarly, the 300-ha Dai Lai Golf Course in Vinh Phuc Province’s Ngoc Thanh Commune took jobs away from thousands of people, and only gave jobs to 30 locals.

According to figures from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, each farmer cultivates 0.1 ha. Therefore, converting 2,625 ha of paddy fields into golf courses means taking jobs away from 2.6 million individuals.

The toll of the golf courses is not just manifesting in people but the environment as well. Eng Le Anh Tuan from the Can Tho University Environmental Technology Centre, said a 18 hole golf course consumes 5,000cu.m of water, which can be used for 20,000 households per day. Each golf course uses some 1.5 tonnes of chemicals per year, three-times higher than the amount required for farming. In addition, spraying pesticide spreads 90 per cent of toxic substances into the air.

If all the proposals are realised, their human and environmental costs will be in service of some 4,500 to 5,000 golf club members. For a golf course with a maximum of 50 members, each paying US$10,000 to 15,000 per year in fees, investors would have to wait 100 years to make back their money if membership dues are the only revenue source.

Thus, it is easy to see that investors have their eyes on other goals rather than collected fees; but it is difficult to determine what those goals exactly are...

Keeping an eye on the golf course boom