A massive project featuring villas and seven-story hotels in the turquoise waters near Vietnam’s Unesco World Heritage Site Ha Long Bay is triggering public criticism of a government-approved development some fear threatens one of the nation’s most cherished tourist attractions.
Ha Long Bay — its name means “descending dragon” — is located in northeast Vietnam and encompasses a 600-square-mile area featuring thousands of limestone karsts and islets.
Construction plans, which were approved by the Quang Ninh provincial government in 2021, call for at least 451 villas and townhouses, multiple seven-story hotels and other buildings for roughly 2,500 residents near Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay, Tien Phong newspaper reported on its website. Do Gia Capital Company Ltd. spent about 1.2 trillion dong ($49.3 million) for rights to build the urban project after winning a land auction, according to the report.
Now some local officials appear to be engaging in damage control.
Do Gia Capital was slapped with a 125 million dong fine by the province’s department of natural resources and environment for failing to comply with an approved environmental impact assessment, according to a statement on the Vietnam government’s website. The penalty was announced after state media reported on the 31.8-hectare project with photos depicting parts of the project jutting into waters adjacent to the bay.
“This is truly destructive to the natural landscape,” one reader wrote in the comments section to a story on the VnExpress news website. “What are they thinking?”
The project complied with government procedures, according the statement. Just one-tenth of the project reviewed by the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is in the area bordering Ha Long Bay, it said.
Nonetheless, news of the construction site has triggered an outcry in the Communist country, where media is strictly controlled by the one-party government. The People’s Committee of Cam Pha City, which has administrative authority over the construction area, on Nov. 6 called for a halt of the project.
Representatives for Do Gia Capital were not immediately available for comment.
The Ha Long Bay Management Board discovered the developer dumped soil into waters bordering Ha Long Bay without embankments on Sept. 19, threatening the ecosystem, VTC News reported on its website.
“The project should be stopped, the license should be revoked and tourism economic development should not be sacrificed like that,” a reader identified as Tale Minh wrote in the comments section for a story on the controversy on VietnamNet.
Ha Long City attracted more than 6.8 million tourists — including 895,000 international travelers — in the first nine months of the year, a 16% increase from a year earlier, according to the local government’s website.
Unesco has repeatedly warned Vietnamese officials in recent years that Ha Long Bay’s environmental health is increasingly at risk from tourism activities, maritime transportation and the growing urbanization of Quang Ninh province, Tien Phong newspaper said in another report. Local officials put in place a development strategy restricting construction in the mountains and projects that encroach on the bays or sea, raising questions about why the Do Gia Capital project was allowed to proceed, Tien Phong reported.
The Quang Ninh’s People Committee has ordered Cam Pha City officials and other relevant authorities to closely monitor the project, according to the government statement.
--With assistance from Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen.