It is surprising that the total area of agricultural land in the country is only 4.3 million hectares but the area for building golf courses has now amounted to 70,000 hectares. Although the area for building golf courses is only one-sixth compared to the area of agricultural land, this is an abnormal proportion. In fact, golf is still strange for most Vietnamese people whose average annual income is not equal to the value of a golf-club.

Although most of Vietnamese people are unfamiliar with playing golf, building golf courses has become a burning issue for farmers in many villages. To build a 18-hole golf course, more than 100 ha of agricultural land is needed. This means that around 1,000 farmers will lose their jobs and thousands of farmers have to leave their villages for the cities to earn their living.

According to the results of a survey on golf courses in South East Asia, each 18 hole-golf course consumes 150,000 cubic metres of water a year, which is equivalent to the volume of safe water for 20,000 households. In addition, to care for one hectare of golf course, takes 1.5 tonnes of chemicals a year, three times higher than the volume of chemicals used for the same hectare of agriculture land. Moreover, the ingredients of the chemicals contain agents that cause cancer.

Due to the potential risks, it is necessary to collect opinions from scientists and the public on the impact caused by the construction of golf courses to the environment and society. However, granting investment license for building golf courses is up to the local authorities. In fact, for individual purposes and to attract investment, when some enterprises plan to build a golf course, localities have strongly supported them, making the number of golf courses jump remarkably.

Going to Xuan Mai crossroads, which is around 30 km away from Hanoi, we can see many golf courses such as Phuong Hoang, Dong Mo, and Sky Lake golf. For example, the Van Tri golf course in the Dong Anh district of Hanoi has a total investment of US$14.5 million, and covers an area of 128ha including 93ha of rice growing land for two crops. Building this golf course has seen 600 households lose their land.  However, from June 2003 to December 2007, Van Tri golf course has contributed only VND20.8 billion to the state budget (VND4 billion per year on average). Each year, thousands of people lose their jobs while the state budget has collected little revenues from the construction of golf courses.

In fact, building golf courses has not brought much benefit to the state budget at all, but has negatively affected many people’s lives, created a risk of environmental pollution.  However, people are still investing in building golf courses. Therefore, the government should conduct an investigation to clarify the issue.

Never before in history has agricultural land been needed so much as today. Currently, the country has only 7.5 million hectares of cultivated land while the area of rice-growing land for two crops is only 4.3 million ha. With a population of nearly 100 million people, the area of rice-growing land is very small while each year thousands of hectares have been occupied to build industrial parks, export processing zones, and golf courses.

Retaining agricultural land is essential for ensuring food security and this is much more important than providing a few people with such luxury.