Chinese firms dominate list of foreign illegal land lessees

As many as ten foreign businesses have directly leased land plots from local residents without reporting to the management agencies in Ben Tre.

Eight of these firms are Chinese companies, according to the province’s People’s Committee.

These foreign investors have leased a total of 82 hectares of land for their local facilities for up to five years without the local government realizing it.

Most of the land leasing contracts were approved and notarized by the people’s committees in communes, and the provincial Department of Justice, which is against the law, the committee said.

According to a report by the province’s people’s committee, the ten businesses have all been granted investment license. Three of them operate in the aquaculture sector, and the remaining seven make coconut-related products.

Eight companies are from China, and the remaining are based in Russia and Indonesia.

‘Silent leasing’

The first foreign company to have leased land without the approval of the local government was the coconut manufacturer Chinese Trung Lam Co Ltd.

After obtaining an investment license in October 2007, Li Qiu Sheng, a Chinese national, contacted a household in My Thanh An Commune to lease its 2,000-square-meter land plot for ten years from 2008.

The contract was notarized by the province’s justice department.

Also in 2008, Trung Nhac Co Ltd, another Chinese-owned company, leased a 2,700-square-meter plot from a local for ten years.

The ‘land leasing movement’ boomed between 2010 and 2012, with six companies (five from China, one from Indonesia) illegally leasing a total area of 58,200 square meters of land from local households.

The former has bought 14.5-hectares of land from locals, and leased another 50 hectare plot to raise fish, while the latter has leased 12 hectares for aquaculture.

Viet – Nga Co intended to lease another 20-hectare land plot to expand production, but was asked to stop by local authorities.

Justice department’s fault

All of the contracts for the said deals were notarized by the justice department, while it is required that local residents seek permission from the province’s People’s Committee before closing a contract with the foreign investors.

In a document released in March, the director of the department, Phan Tuan Thanh, admitted that his department flouted the law on land by notarizing the land leasing contracts between locals and the foreign companies.

As per law, the province’s people’s committee is the only agency that is authorized to approve land leasing proposals of foreign-invested businesses.

Meanwhile, officials of the people’s committees in the communes where the foreign businesses have leased land said they had to notarize the contracts, as the companies have sent Vietnamese representatives to ink the deals.

Little knowledge

Local residents who leased their land to foreign businesses said they do not know much about the law, so they just “accepted the deal if the businesses offered acceptable prices.”

They also had no idea that they were violating the law, given that the contracts were approved by the justice department, they said.

Phan Van Nam, a local who leased two hectares of land to the Chinese Trung Han Co LTd in Tan Hoi Commune of Mo Cay Nam District, said he closed the contract with a local woman named Mai Thi Bich Hanh.

The first contract was notarized by the commune’s people’s committee, after which Nam was asked by Zhou Zhunhan, a Chinese national, to sign another paper in Chinese.

Nam recalled: “At first I was nervous, but after having an interpreter tell me what the contract said, I agreed to sign, finding nothing abnormal about it.”

Meanwhile, the foreign businesses explained that they did not violate the law deliberately.

“They said it is because they too have little knowledge of the local law,” said Nguyen Truc Son, director of the province’s Trade Promotion Center.

Both Simmy and Viet – Nga Co have promised that they are willing to cancel the land lease contracts and return the land to locals.

“The businesses said they want to stay long-term in Vietnam, and hope that they can lease land from the government for a term of more than ten years,” Son said.