11 FORMER OFFICIALS OF BINH THUAN PROVINCE HAVE BEEN DETAINED
On April 26, 2024, the Ministry of Public Security announced the prosecution and arrest of 12 former leaders of the People’s Committee of Binh Thuan province and its affiliated departments.
Accordingly, based on the investigation results of the case of “Violation of regulations on the management and use of state assets, causing waste and loss” occurring in the Phan Thiet Beach Urban Area project in Phu Thuy ward, Phan Thiet city, Binh Thuan province, invested by Rang Dong Joint Stock Company; On April 23, 2024, the Investigation Security Agency of the Ministry of Public Security issued a Decision to prosecute and make criminal proceedings against 12 cases of “Violation of regulations on the management and use of state assets, causing waste and loss.”
Including:
Decision to prosecute and arrest and detain 11 cases, including: (1) Le Tien Phuong, former Chairman of Binh Thuan Provincial People’s Committee; (2) Xa Duong Thang, former Director of the Department of Construction, former Secretary of Bac Binh District Party Committee, Binh Thuan province; (3) Do Ngoc Diep, former Chairman of Phan Thiet City People’s Committee; (4) Ho Nhu Hai, former Deputy Director of Southern Information and Price Assessment Company – Binh Thuan Branch, Price Appraiser; (5) Le Anh Huy, former Head of Administrative Management Department, Land Management Agency of Binh Thuan province;
(6) Nguyen Van Phong, former Vice Director of the Department of Finance, former Standing Member of the Land Price Council, former Vice Chairman of Binh Thuan Provincial People’s Committee; (7) Ho Lam, former Director of Binh Thuan Provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment; (8) Le Nguyen Thanh Danh, former Vice Director of Binh Thuan Provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment; (9) Nguyen Thanh Cho, former Chief of Binh Thuan Land Management Agency; (10) Le Nam Hung, former Deputy Chief of Binh Thuan Land Management Agency; and (11) Pham Duy Cuong, former Deputy Head of the Economic Land Office, Land Management Agency of Binh Thuan province; former Head of the Natural Resources and Environment Office of Phan Thiet city, Binh Thuan province.
At the same time, a decision to prosecute and ban from leaving the place of residence was made against Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phong, former Vice Director of Binh Thuan Provincial Tax Department.
PROJECT CAUSED LOSSES OF THOUSANDS OF BILLIONS OF DONG
The Phan Thiet Beach Urban Area project was initially the Phan Thiet Golf Course project with an area of more than 62 hectares, invested by Regent International Overseas Corp (100% foreign capital), licensed in 1993.
In September 2013, the foreign investor signed a contract to transfer capital in the project enterprise (Phan Thiet Golf and Golf Club Company, now known as Phan Thiet Beach Urban Area Joint Stock Company) to Rang Dong Joint Stock Company.
Not long after the transfer, Rang Dong requested the People’s Committee of Binh Thuan province to convert the golf course land into urban land, which was approved. Notably, on March 1, 2014, Rang Dong Joint Stock Company announced the termination of golf course operations from April 1, 2014, even though there was no decision from the competent authority.
Phan Thiet Beach Urban Area Project
On November 25, 2015, Mr. Le Tien Phuong, Chairman of Binh Thuan Provincial People’s Committee, signed a decision approving the land price to calculate the land use levy for an area of nearly 36.4 hectares (including residential and commercial service land, accounting for 58.57% of the project area). The remaining area is non-monetary land of 25.7 ha.
Accordingly, the total land use levy that Rang Dong Joint Stock Company has to pay is VND 936.8 billion. In detail, the average land price is only VND 2.5 million/m2. Meanwhile, the actual land price in Phan Thiet city and the roads around the Phan Thiet Beach Urban Area project at that time was 5 times higher than the land price applied by the People’s Committee of Binh Thuan province to this project of Rang Dong.
In October 2022, the Investigation Security Agency of the Ministry of Public Security announced the conclusion of asset appraisal. Accordingly, the result of appraising the land use right value of the Phan Thiet Beach Urban Area project as of April 10, 2015 to November 25, 2015 is more than VND 2,863 billion. Thus, the amount that Binh Thuan province has applied to the above project is lower than the conclusion of the Asset Appraisal Council in criminal proceedings at the ministerial level by about VND 1,900 billion.
A corner of Phan Thiet Beach Urban Area, Binh Thuan province (Tuoi Tre Newspaper)
HOW DOES THE RANG DONG GROUP OPERATE?
Rang Dong Joint Stock Company (later renamed Rang Dong Group) with businessman Nguyen Van Dong as its Chairman, is one of the largest multi-sector corporations in Binh Thuan province with more than 15 member companies.
The precursor of Rang Dong Group was Construction Corporation No. 4, established in early 1991, operating in the fields of construction of bridge and road works, technical infrastructure works, civil and industrial works…; Exploitation and processing of minerals; Production of building materials; Wood processing; Mechanics; Forest and rubber tree planting; Investment in construction of residential areas, complex tourist areas (resort, hotel, golf course,…) and investment in traffic infrastructure in the form of BOT contracts.
Currently, after many restructurings, Rang Dong Group has become a private multi-sector group operating mainly in the fields of Investment – Construction; Metal minerals; Trading, services and Building materials.
Chairman of Rang Dong Group – Nguyen Van Dong
Rang Dong Joint Stock Company was established in September 2007, with its head office located on Ton Duc Thang street, Xuan An ward, Phan Thiet city, Binh Thuan province. The legal representative and General Director of the company is Ms. Trinh Thi Phuong Hien (born in 1981).
According to the business registration in June 2019, Rang Dong Joint Stock Company has a charter capital of VND 1,804 billion, in which Chairman Nguyen Van Dong contributed VND 1,749.88 billion, holding 97% of the company’s charter capital.
The announcement of the change of enterprise registration information on August 2, 2021 showed that the scale of capital of Rang Dong Joint Stock Company reached VND 4,500 billion and did not specify the shareholder structure.
In the field of real estate, Rang Dong Group is the investor of a series of notable real estate projects in Binh Thuan such as: Sea Links City Resort Complex with an area of 167 ha located at Km 09 Nguyen Thong, Phu Hai ward, Phan Thiet city (also known as Sea Link Phan Thiet Golf Course project); Ranged Dong Residential Area project with an area of 8 ha in Ham Lien commune, Ham Thuan Bac district; Song Binh Industrial Park project with an area of 300 ha, in Song Binh commune, Bac Binh district.
Sea Links City Project
In the field of construction, Rang Dong Joint Stock Company is the investor of the BOT Phu Hai Bridge project. In addition, Rang Dong Group also constructs other projects, contributing to the embellishment of the coastal city such as Vo Van Kiet Park, National Highway 55…
Rang Dong Joint Stock Company also won the bid for the BOT contract to build Phan Thiet Airport in 2016, with a total investment of VND 1,548.6 billion. However, in late 2023, the Ministry of Planning and Investment sent a document to the People’s Committee of Binh Thuan province related to the method of selecting investors for the Phan Thiet Airport Project. Thereby, the BOT contract with Rang Dong Joint Stock Company was terminated and a new mechanism for selecting investors for the Phan Thiet Airport Project was proposed.
In the field of mineral exploitation, Rang Dong Group is the investor of the project “Exploitation of Ham Kiem 4 sedimentary sand minerals” (in Dan Binh village, Ham Kiem commune, with a reserve of 101,768 m3); and the project “Exploitation of Tan Ha construction stone mine” (in Tan Ha commune, Ham Tan district, Binh Thuan province).
In addition, Rang Dong Group once invested in the financial and banking sector when it held 32.5 million shares of Vietnam Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VietABank – Code: VAB) from 2015. However, in 2021, Rang Dong Joint Stock Company sold nearly 11 million VAB shares, reducing its ownership ratio to 4.88% of charter capital and was no longer a major shareholder of VietABank.
