Remove the "bottleneck" to attract investment in agriculture

Deploying extra-budgetary projects to invest in the agricultural sector is considered a "key" and a driving force to increase the value of the province's agricultural sector, forming linkages in production and consumption. However, in 4 projects that have been approved by the Provincial People's Committee and 5 projects that are undergoing procedures for approval of investment policies, the implementation progress is very low and has not met the set expectations. To remove difficulties, the province has directed branches and localities to continue reviewing and researching to advise the Provincial People's Committee to issue regulations and policies to attract investment in the development of agriculture and rural areas.

The categories of the project of seed production, commercial farming and processing shrimp feed using high technology in Cam Pha city are still almost not implemented.

The project of seed production, commercial farming and processing of shrimp feed using high technology (Phase 1) in Cong Hoa commune (Cam Pha city) is one of four key projects that have been approved by the Provincial People's Committee since January 2018. The investor of the project is Cam Pha N.G Seafood Joint Stock Company, the planning area is 144ha, the total investment is expected to be about 430 billion VND. According to the committed schedule, the investor will have to build the work items from April 2018 to December 2018 and put them into operation in January 2019. However, after the above timelines, the items have not been implemented yet, and the investor has repeatedly requested the Provincial People's Committee to extend the project implementation period.

On August 6, 2021, the Provincial People's Committee issued Document No. 5222/UBND-XD1 requesting the investor to perform the following contents: Transferring funds of 14 billion VND to Cam Pha City to pay compensation for site clearance; committing to coordinate with the city to complete the procedures for land allocation and land lease with a specific time and route and completing these contents in August 2021; studying and proposing adjustments to shorten the project implementation time in accordance with the remaining workload so that the project can be put into operation soon; implementing the capital contribution, fully mobilizing capital... Next, the Department of Planning and Investment, the People's Committee of Cam Pha City has also repeatedly issued documents to urge investors to implement the above contents under the direction of the Provincial People's Committee. However, up to now, N.G ​​Cam Pha Seafood Joint Stock Company has been slow to implement and the project after many years is still just a vacant lot, causing a waste of land.

Similarly, in January 2021, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 237/QD-UBND approving the study site for detailed planning for factory projects of sawing, drying finished wood and producing and exporting plywood in Nam Son commune (Ba Che district) for An Viet Phat Energy Company Limited. The goal of the project is to increase processed wood products, limit raw, chopped, peeled and pre-processed products, and create conditions for Ba Che people to have a place to consume products. This is a large-scale project with an area of ​​​​over 14 hectares, a total investment of nearly 1,100 billion VND. It is expected that when it comes into operation, the project has a design capacity of over 56,000 tons of sawn timber/year. Notably, besides this project, An Viet Phat Energy Company Limited is also carrying out procedures for approving investment policies for the project of a wood pellet factory for export in Nam Son commune (Ba Che district) with roughly equivalent scale. However, up to this point, both projects have not been invested because they are still in the process of collecting opinions and appraisals from departments and agencies.

According to the Department of Planning and Investment, the delay of projects is due to the lack of specific data on the current status of land use, forest use by the project proposals of the investors. The area for which the purpose of land use and forest use must be changed has not yet been clearly determined. Some projects are not suitable for land use planning; many investors still lack goodwill in coordination work, being slow in arranging funds to pay compensation for site clearance, supplementing documents, etc. Besides, the coordination work between departments and localities with businesses is not really tight and drastic.

Most recently, on September 22, after listening to units reporting on the results of implementing extra-budgetary projects in the agricultural sector, Mr. Pham Van Thanh, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee affirmed: The agricultural sector is an important pillar in the province's socio-economic development, ensuring both food and life security, social security and employment for rural people. But so far, the province has not had a typical agricultural production project, while neighboring provinces such as Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Hai Duong... have had many modern factories producing, processing and consuming agricultural products. This shows that we have not yet made drastic changes and have not focused on this area. Therefore, in order for the projects to be put into production soon, the localities must include the site clearance progress in their monthly work review. The Departments of Natural Resources and Environment and the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development must support investors related to the conversion of forest use purposes, land use purposes. The view of the province is not to let businesses "swim" alone in the project investment process.