VIETNAM seeks to maintain a record pace of investments to help its economy that is struggling from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recently, the country approved its biggest commercial project this year, when Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed off on a US$9.3 billion tourist resort.
The massive project will be led by Vingroup, Vietnam's largest private conglomerate, with foreign investors also participating in the development.
Vingroup's project is one of more than a dozen major investments given the green light by Hanoi in the first half of the year.
Others include a US$208 million highway in the Mekong Delta, a US$52 million industrial park in Binh Phuoc Province and three golf courses in northern provinces worth US$130 million.
Eight component projects of the North-South Expressway, worth about US$4.47 billion, were also shifted from public-private partnerships to fully public investments in April.
The tourist resort project in the coastal Can Gio district 50km south of Ho Chi Minh City is slated for completion in 2031, reports Nikkei Asian Review.
Vingroup had waited years for government approval as civil groups, local media and activists warned of environmental risks to a biosphere reserve protecting Ho Chi Minh City against air and water pollution.
Environmental activists said the pandemic provides perfect cover for the approval.
Experts said extensive land reclamation would have profound environmental impact stretching northward to Ho Chi Minh City and in the Mekong Delta.
The reclamation is estimated to need 138 million cubic metres of sand, enough to fill 36,600 Olympic-sized swimming pools, suctioned from riverbeds in the Mekong Delta.
The project sparked local debates last year, and authorities promised to hold more discussions and carry out more studies before making a decision.
The green light came as a surprise as the government had stressed the need to improve environmental impact assessments and the approval process for economic development projects when it passed a review of Vietnam's climate change policies last year.
Phuc had promised not "to trade the environment for economic growth".
But the pandemic has sunk Vietnam's tourism and exports, two key drivers of the economy, pushing the country to make faster decisions on large-scale projects.
Official estimates put Vietnam's exports for January to May at US$99.36 billion, down 1.7 per cent for the year.
While the International Monetary Fund has cut its economic growth projections for the country to 2.7 per cent this year, Hanoi aims to achieve an expansion of more than five per cent.
Last month, the ruling Communist Party Politburo urged the government to use all domestic resources to maintain the pace of economic growth amid the pandemic.