Nguyen Chanh Tin, a famed actor, film producer and businessman, recently protested against the delay in completing his land rent, which he claimed caused him huge losses and plunged his company into the brink of bankruptcy.

Nguyen Chanh Tin, a well-known actor in the 1980s and now director of Chanh Tin Co., wrote in a letter that at the end of 2010, his company rented a five-hectare plot in Central Highlands Lam Dong province’s Don Duong district to launch a project on high-tech agricultural trading and production.

The local government and the province’s Department of Resources and Environment unanimously agreed to let Tin’s company rent the land plot, as Tin claimed.

His company kicked off the project then, with investments mounting to several billion dong (VND1 bil equals US$ 47.3 mil), the artist noted.

However, the provincial People’s Committee has yet to give the green light to the land rent.

The holdback caused the company’s partners to withdraw their investments, plunging it into heavy debts.

The company has recently come to the grinding halt and is now on the verge of bankruptcy, Tin lamented.

Dinh Ngoc Hung, chair of Don Duong district’s People’s Committee, confirmed that Tin’s company had expressed the wish to rent the plot, but the provincial People’s Committee has yet to give its nod.

Hung added that this plot was previously assigned to another company and was about to be retrieved. However, the province won’t retrieve it now that this company has proceeded with their project.

“In reality, the district government then didn’t reach an agreement on allowing Tin’s company to launch the project in the area. We also notified the company of the provincial committee’s disapproval of their project then,” Hung refuted.

Phung Khac Dong, a representative of the provincial committee, asserted that the committee had never granted its consent to Tin’s rent.

Dong added that at that moment, seven other businesses were also denied the consent to rent lands in the area.

Tin also confirmed that the provincial committee has yet to agree to lease the plot to his company, adding that his company, however, kicked off the project based on the ‘so-called’ agreement from the Don Duong government and the provincial Department of Resources and Environment while pending the official acceptance from the provincial committee.

The artist cited such documents as invitation letters and the department’s and Don Duong government’s proposals to obtain acceptance from the provincial committee on the rent as proof of the ‘agreement’.