Dark sun shattered lands manual

On behalf of the real estate enterprises, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HOREA), said that compared to the previous year, there was an additional petition of Gamuda Land Joint Stock Company. The petition states that while waiting for the Prime Minister to decide on a VND514-billion deduction following the recommendations of the Government Inspectorate, over the past time, construction investment and business activities of the company have been stagnant, affecting the reputation and brand of this company in 10 years of operation in Vietnam.

As for the matter of social housing, Mr. Le Huu Nghia, CEO of real estate developer Le Thanh, said that they were considering whether to develop social housing again. Because of too many difficult procedures, many people advised him to play safe by switching to develop commercial real estate. At the Le Thanh Tan Kien social housing project in Binh Chanh District, although the HCMC People’s Committee had directly instructed to remove obstacles, after three years of implementing the project, now it backs to square one.

Although the regulation for the processing time of the application by authorities is 215 days, in fact, the processing of the application can take a lot longer than that because the application must be transferred between departments and districts. Even a document from the urban management office to the district People’s Committee takes several months. Moreover, although the social housing projects are invested by enterprises from start to finish, they are audited as projects using capital from the State budget. Meanwhile, the auditors are too strict. They slap them with high fines on petty mistakes, discouraging investors, Mr. Le Huu Nghia explained.

Le Thanh Company is one of 20 enterprises that have petitioned the city through the summary of HOREA. This list shows that many petitions had been raised by investors at meetings with the city leaders in the past years, but they kept repeating because they were not resolved, or resolved sluggishly.

For Novaland Group Corporation, out of a total of 14 problematic projects, only 4 projects were solved. Seven projects that have handed over houses to customers in Phu Nhuan District and have been facing obstacles in the past years, merely stay at the stage of “being actively considered and settled by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and relevant departments”.

Entanglements at the Dragon City project in Nha Be District of Phu Long Real Estate Company have lasted for 16 years. In 2004, the company won the auction of 14 land plots with a total area of 44.49 hectares, which are clean land. The investor has fulfilled all financial obligations as prescribed, at the same time embarked on implementing the housing project as planned. However, one subdivision of the project still has a house that refuses to move, causing the company to be unable to deploy the rest of the project. Although the company has sent many petitions to the People’s Committee of HCMC, the People’s Committee of Nha Be District, and relevant authorities over the past years, so far, there has been no progress in compensation settlement.

The HOREA raised a hot issue that although the project does not include public land, the Department of Planning and Investment still requests the investor to supplement the documents many times. Up to now, the department has not submitted to the municipal People’s Committee for issuance of the decision on investment policy for the project, causing enterprises to face many difficulties. The representative of the Department of Planning and Investment explained in writing as follows: In the process of handling documents, the department does not require investors to amend and/or supplement their documents many times. However, in the case that after consulting the departments, if there is a request, the department will ask the investor for additional documents following the opinion of these agencies. The Department of Planning and Investment also suggests that in the future, if there is an unreasonable request for additional documents many times by the Department, the HOREA should inform the department so that it can respond promptly.

So for public land, which are roads, trails, canals scattered and interlaced in the projects, how will it be handled? The representative of the Department of Planning and Investment answered that the department can only review and process dossiers for investment policy approval after the Department of Natural Resources and Environment submits to the City People’s Committee to handle the issues related to the receiving of transfer, capital contribution, renting agricultural land use rights to implement projects and small land parcel managed by the State.

HCMC People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong asked relevant agencies to focus on solving difficulties and speeding up the progress of real estate projects because the implementation was extremely slow. This delay is due to the inspection and auditing work. The city had had to work a lot, with the Government Inspector alone inspecting 164 projects. When being inspected, the projects must halt, affecting greatly the operation of enterprises. Besides, there are some projects related to public land, the city also had to stop.

“I understand that currently, real estate businesses are facing many difficulties. It costs a lot if the project is behind schedule, so departments must understand and share this,” Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong noted.

HCMC now has 13 million people. After five years, it will increase by 1 million people, so the pressure on technical and social infrastructure is tremendous. This is also a great potential for real estate enterprises. The real estate industry plays an important role and position and has a close relationship with many industries and many other markets, such as capital, labor, and construction materials. Since 2000, real estate is considered one of nine important service industry groups of HCMC. Up to now, out of 10,200 businesses with a capital of VND100 billion upwards, real estate enterprises account for 32 percent and 35 percent of the capital. Statistics also show that in the nine important service industries contributing 56.5 percent of the gross regional domestic product of HCMC, real estate accounts for 4.2 percent, contributing 8.2 percent to domestic revenue.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong affirmed that removing difficulties for real estate is to remove difficulties for the economic development of the city. The city leader felt concerned after hearing that most real estate businesses have been encountering difficulties. He requested that based on the petitions of enterprises, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee Le Hoa Binh should schedule to work with departments to resolve each issue and give specific conclusions. As for the 61 projects facing difficulties in investment procedures, the Director of the Department of Planning and Investment was assigned to study and report to the investment working group of the city. These works must be completed by April 15.

Nguyen Thanh Nam has been leading tours in Da Nang for more than a decade and he says most tourists cannot help but be amazed at the beautiful nature of Nam O Reef.

“The reefs combine with beautiful sand, clear blue seawater, and green trees to become a must-visit destination for nature lovers when coming to Da Nang,” said Nam.

“During spring, when the tide recedes, rocks of different shapes and sizes reveal they are covered with green moss. They look so beautiful, just like green pearls.”

Born in Da Nang and spending his childhood living near the reef, Nam has been coming to the place since it was just a pristine beach where fishermen in Nam O village made their living.

“The name can be referred to as ‘The beach located in the south of Chau O’, it also means ‘southern gate’,” said the 35-year-old tour guide.

“Nam O Reef is about 500m long jutting out into the sea with a dense layer of rock hidden under the cool blue seawater. There are many rock layers, stacked to form many unique shapes.”

“By lunar January, when the weather warms up, green moss begins to grow on the rocks. The best time to enjoy this moment is dawn when the sun comes up, the tide recedes, beautiful rocks formed in all shapes are revealed, mixed in the sand and covered with a carpet of green moss,” he added.

Visitor Anh Thu from Thanh Khe district of Da Nang said: “Da Nang has many beautiful beaches such as My Khe, Pham Van Dong and Man Thai. However, this is the first time my family has gone to Nam O.”

“The air here is so fresh. At this time of spring, the rocks are covered with a layer of green moss which is so charming.

“This is an opportunity for my whole family to experience the life of fishermen in the coastal fishing village. This place is also an ideal destination for photographers,” said Thu.

Speaking of photography, nearby the reef, Quang Thanh from HCM City was looking the best camera angles for his photos.

“I’m a photographer from Saigon and I come here to capture the beauty of this place. It has to be spring if you want to get the best out of it.

“I took many pictures about the moss season in the central coastal provinces. In Nam O, large and small rocks mix with many different shapes and combine with the dawn light passing through the rocks, creating very vivid and unique photos,” he said.

After getting up in the early morning, you can buy delights from the sea caught by fishermen in the village.

Fresh squid, shrimp, and fish thrashing when being pulled from the sea and the enthusiasm of the local people give tourists an unforgettable experience.

This place is also home to the Nam O fish sauce village which has existed for more than 400 years. Last year, the village was honoured as the National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Source: VNA

Under the adjusted plan, the Doppler Weather Radar station will be built on an area of 1,600 square metres to the north of the airport. A multi-storey car park will also be built, which will be connected to a new passenger terminal to be built soon.

Under the plan, the airport will cover a total area of 791ha, an increase of 250ha compared to the existing airport area of 545ha.

About 19ha of military defence land has been handed over for building aircraft parking aprons.

The additional land of 250ha includes 18ha of additional national defence land, 35ha of land in the southern area, and 171ha of land in the northern area of the airport.

An additional eight taxiways will be built to expedite aircraft take-offs and landings.

At least 56 aprons will be added in front of the new passenger terminal T3 and in the southwest area of the airport, increasing the total number of aprons to 106.

In the northern area of the airport, a reservoir with an advanced pumping station to prevent flooding will also be built.

In addition, roads connecting to the airport will be built as soon as possible under the city’s transport plan.

To ensure the progress of the expansion plan, priority will be given to the construction of a new international terminal T3.

According to a proposal by the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the third passenger terminal with a total investment of more than 11.43 trillion VND (494.4 million USD) will be built in the south of the airport. ACV will invest in building the new terminal, using 100 percent of its corporate capital.

The existing passenger terminals T1 and T2 will be expanded to accommodate an additional 30 million passengers per year by 2030.

The new terminal capable of handling 20 million passengers per year will take 43 months to build, according to ACV.

In total, the airport is expected to have a total capacity of up to 50 million passengers per year by 2030.

Tan Son Nhat, the country’s busiest airport, has been seriously overloaded, both on the ground and in the air for years, forcing many flights to wait in the air to land.

In a related issue, work began early this year on the Long Thanh International Airport in the neighbouring province of Dong Nai, expected to ultimately handle 60-70 million passengers per year. It’s expected to ease the overloading at Tan Son Nhat airport.

However, the huge airport will not be completed until at least 2025 because of “a lack of capital and slow compensation progress,” experts have warned.

Tan Son Nhat will remain the main airport hub in the southern region even after Long Thanh airport becomes operational.

Source: VNA

For many farmers in Hoi An in the central province of Quang Nam, buffaloes are also the highlights of eco-tours hosted by the Jack Tran Tours company.

So in the Year of the Buffalo, they have more tales about the animals to tell than ever.

Tran Van Khoa (third from the left, in green T-shirt) shows his visitors how to ride a buffalo. Photo courtesy of Jack Tran Tours

Tran Van Khoa, sales manager and owner of the company, told Viet Nam News that the idea for the tour came to him on a field trip he took a group of foreigners to visit Tra Que vegetable village on the outskirts of ancient Hoi An Town 10 years ago.

“The foreign tourists seemed to be interested in buffaloes eating grass,” he said. “They asked the owners to take photos with the cattle. They often tipped the farmers one or two US dollars for each photographing session. I thought the buffalo might be a special tourism product that will bring more income to farmers.”

Over the time, the company has gathered nearly 20 farmer families who own some 100 buffaloes for wet rice tours, which offer tourists the chance to work in the field with buffaloes. Before the pandemic, each year the company received 2,000-3,000 guests, bringing each family VND10-15 million ($434-651) a year.

Such a tour lasts for five hours when tourists try various farming tasks.

Two junior tourists enjoy riding a buffalo in Tra Que Village. Photo courtesy of Jack Tran Tours

“At first local farmers were not willing to join the service,” Khoa recalled. “They thought foreigners would never like dirty work in the field. I spent lots of time to persuade them.”

Now the tour attracts mostly group tours and families at a ticket cost of VND1.3 million each including lunch at homestays.

Local farmer Le Nhien, in his mid-50s, who has raised buffaloes since his childhood, is among the farmers who have worked the longest with the company.

“We often choose strong male buffaloes for the job,” he said. “They are gentle, good-looking with twisted hair in the middle of their heads, stubbed noses, big ears, square forehead and bent back, which shows that the buffaloes are very hard-working. The buffaloes with red eyes should not be chosen to serve visitors as they are aggressive.”

“We teach them to stand up following oral orders and be friendly to visitors. The buffaloes should also have at least two years of experience working in the field as they will be more agile and hard-working,” he said.

“I let them sniff perfume and sun cream to be familiar to tourists’ smell,” he revealed.

The trainers should control their buffaloes by short and sharp orders like dí means “walk to the left”; há means “walk to the right”; dờ means “stop”, and dùn means “walk backwards”.

He now owns in total 20 buffaloes and the five best work on the tours. The buffaloes brings home VND10-15 million per month, double the income from raising rice, he said.

He even names his buffaloes like humans with names such as Gio, Si, Tưong and Phao.

The buffaloes are given young rice to be stronger and can work in the field from the ages of three to 20.

Beside stable income from tourism, each female buffalo may give birth to a baby each year, Nhien said.

The tour attracts foreigners. Photo courtesy of Jack Tran Tours

Nhien said each peak month before the pandemic, his family could get VND20 million per month including tips from tourists.

“I have enough money to raise three children,” he said. “My eldest son helps me with the tours.”

Khoa said most of the tourists like his eco-tours with the wet rice planting experience, which also helps create more jobs for locals, and the Jack Tran Tours page is filled with good reviews on Tripadvisor.

Khoa said in 2020, the pandemic has seriously affected tourism in Hoi An, including buffalo tours.

“I was shocked and very sad to tell my staff of 30 people and dozens of involved farmer families to stay off from work as there have been no tourists,” he said. “I gave them each VND5 million for three months at the beginning of the pandemic.

“Before the pandemic, we received 20-100 tourists per day. Now, there are only 1-2 tourists per day or even no tourists in the past year.”

Male strong and friendly buffaloes are chosen for serving tourists. Photo courtesy of Jack Tran Tours

“The farmers and buffaloes now focus only on their farming work,” he said. “I sometimes support them some money to care of the buffaloes.”

“I just hope the disease will soon be controlled with vaccines so that tourists will return to us,” he said.

This year, the company will aim focus on domestic guests with 50 per cent discounts for the tours.

He said a group of tourists has just booked a tour of 45 minutes at VND500,000 per person.

Some customers have also booked the tour for this summer, he said.

“We always compare the buffaloes to the BMWs of the field: strong and valuable,” he said.

“They do not only resemble the familiar image of Vietnamese village and traditional culture but also of the patience and resilience of Vietnamese people to overcome obstacles.” VNS

Farmer Nhien (standing) takes some tourists on a buffalo ride. Courtesy Photo of Jack Tran Tours