Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said at the 2024 Culture Conference, which discussed the resources for cultural and sport institutions on May 12, that no investor has shown interest in cultural village development. This is attributed to a number of problems, especially current regulations.

Under the regulation on NVECT operation, the villages can cooperate, set up joint ventures, and connect with domestic and foreign institutions and individuals in tfields related to investment, construction, management and exploitation; can hire foreign consultants to implement investment promotion activities, give strategic advice in investment; and can develop the village in accordance with the law.

According to Hung, ethnic people can be brought to the villages to settle down there, to diversify daily activities there, thus helping to attract more tourists. However, the allowances offered to people are still low which cannot satisfy demand.

Trinh Ngoc Chung, acting head of NVECT Management Board, confirmed that no investor has poured money into the villages over the last 10 years.

The first reason is the contradictory regulations on the competence of the villages.

The jurisdiction of the villages is stipulated in the Prime Minister’s Decision No39 dated July 15, 2014, under which the Prime Minister allows the head of the board of management to approve the planning of the villages, lease land and allocate land to businesses, and grant investment certificates.

However, when amending the 2015 Investment Law, Land Law and Law on Construction, policymakers did not update NVECTs into the law. As a result, the villages have been facing difficulties when calling for investment.

Second, investments in the village cannot enjoy any preferences. It always takes a long time to invest in cultural works, the required capital is huge, and investors cannot enjoy any incentives.

Hung, at the conference, made proposals to develop the villages to develop tourism. He said it is necessary to build specific policies which allow some cultural and sport institutions at central level to implement their tasks and take responsibility for their activities; promote the advertisement and introductions about the villages to attract investors to items using non-state funding; and design reasonable solutions to manage and use pubic assets for business purposes.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc promised to work with MCST to clarify the problems.

Tinh Le