HANOI: Eviction notices have been sent to farmers in northern Vietnam to make way for a US$1.5 billion Trump Organisation-branded luxury golf resort project that’s already behind schedule.
If the farmers refuse to comply with orders to surrender their land, they will be subject to enforcement due to start on Friday morning (June 26), according to the written instruction from local officials in Hung Yen province seen by Bloomberg News.
Khanh Huyen, a 46-year-old farmer, is among those whose land is being seized. Her family is losing 540 square metres planted with fruit trees that generate up to 100 million dong (US$3,798) a year and have supported them for decades.
That income "may not have made us rich overnight but still allows us to have comfortable houses, own motorbikes or cars and provide our children with a good education,” Huyen told Bloomberg News earlier this month.
The clearance operation marks a crucial step for one of Vietnam’s highest-profile development projects, which has been held up by a standoff between villagers and authorities. Officials are racing to clear the remaining land as the developer pushes to get construction underway to open the first golf course in time for next year’s APEC summit.
For months, dozens of residents have contested the compensation offered by local officials for land that contains ancestral graves and orchards of banana, longan and orange trees that have provided for generations of the same families.
The dispute has slowed progress on a complex that will include luxury hotels, golf courses and residential estates spread across about 900 hectares along the Red River. The first phase is due for completion in late 2027, when Vietnam hosts the APEC Summit and welcomes world leaders, including President Donald Trump.
The development, a partnership between Hung Yen Hospitality Services JSC, a subsidiary of industrial park developer Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corp., and The Trump Organisation, was unveiled with much fanfare in May last year, just weeks after Vietnam was hit with a 46 per cent US tariff.
Standing next to Trump Organisation Executive Vice President Eric Trump at the launch ceremony, then-Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the venture would deepen ties between the two nations and demonstrate foreign investors’ confidence in the country.
Compensation and land clearance for the project are actively progressing, according to Dang Nguyen Nam Anh, executive vice president at Trump International Vietnam Golf & Resort Project. He added that "over 80 per cent” of the planned work has been completed and the project is coordinating closely with local authorities to carry out the next steps.
The Trump Organisation didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment made outside regular business hours.
The project moved through approvals unusually quickly as Hanoi sought closer economic relations with Washington and worked to secure a lower tariff rate. The two countries have yet to finalize a trade agreement, and the US has since opened three investigations into Vietnam’s trade practices as Trump seeks to restore tariffs curtailed by a Supreme Court ruling.
Kinh Bac said in October that it had received 100 hectares of land and expected to secure the remaining 300 hectares needed for the first phase by January, allowing work to begin on two VIP golf courses.
Households have been offered about 320,000 dong per square meter, equivalent to roughly a year’s income from farming for many residents. In total, around four trillion dong has been earmarked for compensation and resettlement linked to the project.
"Giving up our land has already been a great sacrifice and a painful loss for us,” Huyen said. "But compensation at such a low price does not provide us with a sustainable livelihood for the future, especially when we still have children and a family to support.” - Bloomberg
