My cousin called me last week to inform me of good news – the price of her plot of land in Ha Noi’s Soc Son District has soared to many times its original market value thanks to a new golf course project nearby. She bought the 200sq.m hillside plot almost 10 years ago at a small cost and has often been tempted to sell it only to change her mind believing that land prices would go up over time.

"It was a wise decision – I could make a huge profit now," she said, adding that she will have to think whether to sell it or develop some sort of business venture there, such as a mini hotel.

Perhaps my cousin was right. The golf business has become more than a fad in Viet Nam, a country seen as on the fast track to joining the global economy. More foreign investors are flocking to the country to do business and some of them cannot break the habit of playing golf. This is not to mention the fact that more and more Vietnamese VIPs, mostly high ranking officials and businesspeople, have been increasingly turning their attention to the game. After the arrival of tennis, golf has become the latest imported sport that appeals to the upper classes of the country.

A boom in golf course development around the country has benefited land owners like my cousin as well as provincial governments. Land speculators have started eyeing plots much further away from the cities, where prices have skyrocketed.

The US$10 million 18-hole Soc Son Golf Course, the investment project of a Ha Noi-based company, is the second course that will serve the capital city. Around the country, apart from nine operating golf courses, 19 new courses have received licenses and are being developed, 11 of which are located in the north. This is a big change compared to 10 years ago when Viet Nam had just one golf course in the town of Da Lat, in the central highlands province of Lam Dong.

When visiting the Soc Son site with my cousin, fresh rows of villas springing up outside the new golf course could be seen. S Fujiwara, the renowned Japanese designer of the golf course, said Soc Son will also house resorts, ecological villages, and hotels.

The service development boom is not limited to Soc Son. All other golf courses in the country promise large-scale projects that can turn the local economy into a more lucrative money making business. A golf course like Soc Son covers 120ha yet the planned service facilities will occupy a much larger area. Building a golf course like Soc Son costs $10 million, but developers will profit from the golf course for 30-70 years.

The economic benefits are unquestionably there but did anyone look at the downside - the detrimental effect to the environment in areas reserved for golf courses?

In Soc Son District, once a rural town with many protected forests, trees are being felled to make way for hotels and resorts. Buildings tower above the forests as bulldozers crawl all over the construction sites to level the land. Here in the commune of Minh Tri, the forest used to be a protected. Now it has been divided into equal plots that reach the foot of a nearby mountain.

Looking at the big picture of golf course developments around the country, one is reminded of other business fads that have happened in the past: sugar mills, standing cement furnaces, culture houses, etc. Lacking detailed research and planning, most of these projects have stalled in one way or another. The biggest losses, in my opinion, were not born by the project owners themselves, but by the State, local people and nature itself.

The golf course building trend is a follow-up as financiers are caught in the race to realise their projects in a "fast and furious" at-any-price manner, as highlighted by several newspapers.

Employed in the hundreds by local golf course owners, are local people aware of the fact that they are living in a spoiled and endangered environment? Do local authorities know about the fact that such projects can alter the natural habitat in their localities forever, or even affect underground water sources, protected forests and the life of precious animals? Who will be responsible, at a national level, for regulating the building of golf courses with regards to the environment?

This concern was confirmed at a recent United Nations conference on the Biodiversity Convention in Malaysia, when the UN warned that golf courses in Asia are threatening forests, which shelter thousands of precious animals and important underground water sources.

Golf is a beautiful sport wherever it is played. But it is important to consider the impacts of golf projects on the local environment and minimise the risk to people and biodiversity. Only by doing so can we be sure about an environmental-friendly sport that brings more than just foreign dollars.

Source: Vietnam News