Vietnam to freeze new golf courses to protect rice farms

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

HANOI (AFP) — Communist Vietnam plans to restrict the growth of new golf courses encroaching on rice farms to ensure national food security and protect thousands of poor farmers, state media reported Monday.

More than 140 golf courses, either operating or in the planning stages, would take up almost 50,000 hectares (more than 120,000 acres) of land, said the Vietnam News daily quoting a Ministry of Planning and Investment report.

New golf courses had been licensed at a rate of more than one per week since early 2006, when foreign investor interest surged in the "emerging tiger" economy, which saw growth of 8.5 percent last year.

But now, as food prices are sky-rocketing amid double-digit inflation, the government is planning to freeze new courses that do not...