the Moc Bai Border Gate. — Photo baohaiquan

TAY NINH (Biz Hub) — Licences of nearly 17 investment projects at the Moc Bai Border Gate Economic Zone in southern Tay Ninh Province which have been delayed may be revoked.

The management board of the provincial Economic Zone Management said that the 17 projects on construction of residential and industrial areas, trade centres and eco-tourism sites have not seen any work for years, even though licences were granted nearly ten years ago.

None of the investors have made any commitment to begin construction on these projects in the future either, it said.

The report of the management board showed that by the end of this month, there were 35 enterprises which had registered for 46 investment projects with a total land area of more than 2,000ha. The registered investment capital was more than US$557 million.

However, the investors only managed to mobilise $135 million for 622ha.

Worse, 17 key projects have not been carried out although investors had got extensions from the provincial authority.

For example, the construction of industrial area No 1, which covered 103ha and was funded by Ngoc Oanh Investment Construction Trading Service JSC, was licensed since November, 2003, but no work had been done.

The project on building an ecotourism site, which covered 600ha and was funded by Viet Nam Investment JSC, was delayed for years after it failed to give compensation for site clearance.

Phan Minh Thanh, head of the management board said that the reason for the delays was capital shortage and failure to hand over land to investors.

The inability of the contractors to tackle projects of this magnitude was another reason, he added.

The management board would propose to the provincial authority to give an extension to these investors till the end of this year. If they failed, the authority would revoke their licences and hand over the project to other investors, he said.

Previously, the provincial authority had revoked the licences of 22 investment project at the zone due to long-term delays. These investors had been asked to submit their project development plans. — VNS