Mrs Bounkham Vorachit.                                                       --Photo KPL

Government scraps ineffective concessionary land projects

The government has cancelled several state rental and land concession projects as they were found to be ineffective and inefficient.
A total of 2,031 projects throughout the country will be checked and re-assessed, and authorities will focus on projects with rental and concessionary contracts.
Those projects which have not been developed and those whose development does not match official targets will be cancelled.
The 2,031 projects that are in the official database include 800 agricultural projects, 313 electricity projects and 899 mining projects.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Mrs Bounkham Vorachit, while responding to questions of National Assembly members, said last week that the ministry has so far collected data on 101 rental and concessionary projects in six provinces.
A total of 74 “invisible projects” on an area of 26,064 hectares have been “washed off”. Another 110 projects have been erased from the list of rental and concessionary land.
Another 170 projects covering 79,079 hectares, which were not operated or had expired, have also been cancelled. Thirteen projects covering about 311 hectares, which are not rental and concessionary land of the state, have also been withdrawn.
There are three disputed projects covering 82.4 hectares, while 66 projects covering 22,635 hectares are being rechecked to assess legal work and environmental obligation practices.
In addition, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is cancelling the transfer of state land to an individual for two projects covering 22,635 hectares.    
However, Mrs Bounkham said authorities are facing difficulties in implementing their decisions. “Washing off and cancellation of some substandard projects has not yet been done,” she said.
The coordination between the central and local levels for allowing these projects is not good enough and the collection of data on all the projects is disorderly and incomplete. This results in authorities being unable to collect the rental and concessionary fees and taxes from many projects.
Measures for monitoring, checking and supporting the implementation of projects have not worked well. In addition, many projects are not operating in line with the law and plans for land allocation plan, comprehensive environment management and socio-economic development.
In addition, some projects have begun operations without conducting a study for the environmental impact assessment. Some projects did not study the area and there are facing the problem of “overlapped area”.  Some projects have evaluated their environmental impact, but this was not  worked out according to the regulations. This leads to negative impacts on environment and the society.
Mrs Bounkham said the government will seek ways to tackle this problem in the years to come.

By Times Reporters
 (Latest Update December 13, 2022)