Thao said that there are over 10,000 warehouses and enterprises managed by state-owned agencies in the city, totalling more than 230 million square metres. Of this figure, around 100 million square metres is under the control of central agencies and 136 million square metres under HCM City authorities.

“Around 50 percent of the 236 million square metres of warehouses and enterprises is being used for wrong purposes, used ineffectively, being leased or left empty,” Thao said. She admitted that HCM City has a large number of state-owned warehouses and enterprises and most of them have not been used effectively, causing huge waste and causing ire among the public. While many districts lack land to build schools and houses for resettlement, many plots of golden land have been left unused in the centre of HCM City for years.

Former chief of the Economics and Budget Division under the HCM City People’s Council Nguyen Minh Hoang said that over 20,000sq.m of land around Hoc Lam Lake in district 8 has been submerged and left unused for years while the resettlement project next to this piece of land had to take land from local people.

Chairman of the District 8 People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Chung said that there are 156 warehouses and pieces of land owned by the state being used ineffectively. The local authorities have taken back only 18 of them. The district currently needs land to build new houses for 26,000 families who are living on canals and in slums but it doesn’t have land.

At the dialogue, many people questioned how to effectively use this huge source of land. According to Hoang, the leasing prices of state warehouses are too low and he suggested applying market prices to prevent waste.

Participants said that it is necessary to impose specific sanctions on individuals and bodies loosely managing state land. Many participants suggested carefully considering the equitisation process of state-owned companies to avoid turning state land into private land.