Winners or losers?

- Nguyen Van Hung’s dream of a bigger house for his family came true recently. The 50-year-old resident of Ha Tay province’s Phu Vinh village, replaced the dilapidated shell which was his house, with a spanking-new three-storey building, complete with television, fridge and wardrobes.
Hung’s windfall came when he was paid $16,870 to offer up his farmland to developers of a new township in An Khanh commune. The extra cash has also allowed him to buy a new motorbike and open a small grocery store. In nearby Van Canh commune’s Kim Hoang village, Nguyen The Trinh looks happy with his three-storey home. Trinh was paid $18,750 when his farmland was seized for a new residential area. “I didn’t know what to use the money for, so I decided to build a new house. I intend to purchase a refrigerator for the upcoming summer as well,” said Trinh.Trinh figures he will need $31,250 to finish work on the property. However, he isn’t worried. Local policy dictates that farmers are entitled to another piece of land as large as 10 per cent of the plot he gave up. Trinh values the new plot in waiting at $62,500. “My house faces the village’s main road. I will open a small grocery store to earn a living,” said Trinh.
Residents in An Khanh and Van Canh communes are also in the middle of a construction boom. The two communes are located just five kilometres from Hanoi, in an area where most of the surrounding farmland has already been seized for new townships. In An Khanh, Posco E&C has teamed up with Vinaconex to build a 260-hectare town while Sudico is building infrastructure for a residential area on 181 hectares. In Van Canh commune, the three new urban projects of Vinapol Villas, Hau Ai New Urban Area and Universities New Urban Area, will occupy 250 hectares of formerly agricultural land. Farmers have given up their land to make way for construction of townships and in return, the compensation packages are big enough for them to build new houses. “Our residents have become rich very quickly,” said Bui Van Van, vice chairman of An Khanh People’s Committee. Nguyen Huu Hung, owner of a building materials store in Van Canh, said farmers in his commune were using compensation money to build new houses. About 100 out of the villages 600 households are already hard at work on the task. “I sell about 30 lorries of sand, gravel and bricks a day to the commune. My sales have increased sharply since late 2007 and at present I have trouble keeping up,” said Hung.It is a similar story in sleepy Ha Tay province. A growing number of investors are sweeping into the area to build new townships and industrial parks. And with the investors comes cash. More cash than most subsistence farmers ever dreamed of. Urbanization is rapidly expanding in the northern province, which is poised to be integrated into Hanoi within the next few months. The National Assembly is set to meet on the plan as developers facing throat-cutting land prices in Hanoi, propose townships, golf courses, tourism complexes and industrial parks. According to the Ministry of Construction, there are more than 130 new urban and industrial parks either under construction or in the early stages in Ha Tay. In Duong Noi commune, which is just four kilometres from Hanoi’s National Convention Centre, developers have proposed 13 new residential areas. One of the biggest is a 198-hectare township being built by Nam Cuong Group at a cost of $1 billion. In Hoai Duc district, PetroVietnam is working on a plan to develop a 840-hectare township, which will devour the thee commune’s paddy fields. In An Khanh and Duong Noi communes, all agricultural land will be transformed into real estate and industrial parks. Although farmers are happy with the compensation packages that allow them to build new houses and purchase appliances, they are worried about their prospects later down the road. Some look for jobs as store workers, artisans or in the industrial parks and construction projects. Sadly, most don’t have the skills needed after spending their lives toiling under the sun. “They are in danger of relapsing into poverty. They will face some difficulties due to a lack of jobs,” said Van from An Khanh commune. Trinh is a case in point. After he sold off his fields he found all the doors closed at the industrial park near his home. “Several others went to work in the industrial zone but they gave up as the salary is lower than a motorcycle taxi driver’s income. There are some positions with higher salaries, but companies need professional workers,” said Trinh. Hung from Phu Vinh village, doesn’t earn much from his new job as a motorbike taxi driver. His son works as a bricklayer and earns VND45,000 a day. Hung’s wife, Nguyen Thi Hoa and his daughter-in-law run the new grocers.“We earn about VND30,000 a day from the shop. It is just enough for our five-person family to buy vegetables. My husband and son are responsible for the rice,” said Hoa. Part of their compensation package has been set aside for their grandchildren’s school fees and other day-to-day expenses. “We will run out of money if we can’t find suitable jobs soon,” said HoaLike Hoa, the 13,500 residents of Dong Mai commune in Ha Dong City, are worried about their future after half of their 200 hectares was gobbled up for another industrial park. Phan Thi Ca used most of the $12,500 she received for her 1,080 square meters of land to build a three-storey house. She has been also allocated with another piece of land near the park tantamount to 10 per cent of the withdrawn land that she now can sell for up to $60,000. “If we have no jobs we must use the money for our daily expenses. But, with inflation, it will soon run out,” she complained. There is a little support from local authorities for farmers looking for a new career. Ha Tay has a policy that gives farmers a piece of land equivalent to 10 per cent of the land they give up so that they can set up shops to earn living. However, most sell that piece soon after or even before it is handed over. In An Khanh commune, local authorities organized three vocational training courses for 190 farmers on the cultivation of ornamental plants. Farmers in attendance found it perplexing why authorities would run the courses for people without land. “If I could grow plants in my house I would have attended the course,” farmer Nguyen Dinh Bao joked.
When asked, Bui Van Van, vice chairman of the An Khanh People’s Committee, said the authority couldn’t find anything more suitable. “We are waiting for a governmental policy,” he said.Van Canh and Dong Mai People’s Committees are also doing nothing. Dong Mai organised one course for 30 farmers out of a population of 13,500 residents. Deputy Prime Minister, Nguyen Sinh Hung, last week asked local authorities to create jobs for farmers who had to relinquish more than 250 hectares of agricultural land for a 41 kilometre road from Ha Dong City to National Highway 1A. “The compensation for agricultural land must be satisfactory,” said Hung. “Businesses and local authorities need to work out policies to create jobs for farmers.” Cienco 5 Land is building a road in exchange for land use rights for 570 hectares which will house three new townships. However, many of Ha Tay’s farmers will find roads that lead to nowhere if they can’t find jobs.