Farmers missing out on industrialisation benefits
26-JUL-2008 Intellasia | Thanhniennews
Jul 26, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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The urbanisation and industrialisation of HCM City has not provided jobs and stable incomes for many local farmers, a seminar heard Wednesday.
Dr Tran Thi Thu Luong, deputy director of the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities' Centre for Korean Studies, said the city's industrialisation had not brought economic security to all residents.
Dr Luong said a 2005 survey had found more than 64% of households in the newly-established districts 2, 7, 9, 12 and Binh Tan had jobs but not at nearby industrial parks.
The survey also found more than 48% of the households surveyed were unemployed.
Locals in the districts, most of them farmers, were poorly educated and unskilled, putting them at a disadvantage when their agricultural land was developed into industrial or urban areas, the specialist explained.
Industrialisation had also seriously polluted thousands of hectares of rice fields in the city's outlying districts, with companies and production facilities releasing waste into local canals, Luong said.
Farmers could not plant rice in their polluted fields, which became "death rice fields," she said.
Once this happened, farmers often took advantage of rising property prices and sold their land to real estate investors, Dr Luong said.
Dr Luong said the sale of farming land created a short-term "false prosperity" for the farmers.
In the longer term, the farmers ended up with no job, no land and no capital.
More than 50 professors and lecturers from around the country listened to Luong's speech, hosted by the university's faculty of International relations.
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