DongNai (VNA) - The People’s Committee of Dong Nai province hassuspended the licensing of construction projects in residential areas aroundthe planned Long Thanh International Airport in an effort to preventspeculation and higher land prices.

At a recent meeting on site clearance, Vice Chairman of the Dong Nai People’sCommittee Tran Van Vinh asked Long Thanh and Nhon Trach district authoritieswho grant licences to construction projects to first wait for the planning ofareas around the projects to be completed.

To receive public feedback on the plan, the committee and Long Thanh districtwill work together to publicise information about the plan, Vinh said.

The Government has told the province to work with relevant agencies on afeasibility study on site clearance and compensation to residents who will haveto move before the project begins.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment will assess the feasibility study andsubmit it to the Government before sending it to the National Assembly forapproval.

A spokesman from the Dong Nai province’s Department of Natural Resources andEnvironment said the feasibility study would be submitted to the Government bythe end of August.

The feasibility study is expected to include information about the status andlocation of the airport project; infrastructure for re-settlement areas foraffected households; land reclamation and compensation; and job training andemployment opportunities for the resettled.

Also included will be re-adjustment of administrative borders of the area;environmental impact of the project; sources of investment; and information onthe progress of the feasibility study.

The department said that speculators, after hearing about the airport plan, hadbought farmland plots and divided them into smaller plots for resale. Thiswould likely cause prices of land around the airport to rise, it said.

Around 15,000 Dong Nai residents will be affected by the airport project, 70 percentof them farmers, with others working at rubber plantations or other jobs,according to Dong Nai province’s People’s Committee.

Compensation for site clearance to households is estimated to total 23 trillionVND, including 5 trillion VND approved by the National Assembly for siteclearance between 2016 and 2020.

For site clearance of 5,000 ha for the first stage of the project, 4,730households and 26 offices of organisations will have to be relocated.-VNA