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| The HCM City People’s Committee has begun to crack down on speculation in sand and other construction materials, which has caused their prices to soar. — VNA/VNS Photo Công Phong |
Viet Nam News
HCM CITY — The HCM City People’s Committee has instructed government agencies and district administrations to closely monitor the quality and price of construction sand.
The Department of Trade and Industry has been told to recommend measures to prevent speculation and find out the market price of sand from shops in the city.
Based on the prices, the Department of Finance will decide how to control the factors that led to an abnormal rise in prices recently.
The rise has ceased, but prices remain high.
Best quality sand now costs VNĐ630,000-650,000 (US$27.7-28.6) per cubic metre, while it is VNĐ520,000-530,000 for lower quality sand.
The prices have gone up three-fold in the last few months in many places.
In some areas they were hiked on two or three occasions a month for the last three months, hitting many construction works.
Many construction materials shops took advantage of this to hoard other items too.
The administration has instructed the Department of Science and Technology to look for substitutes for sand in construction to limit the environmental impact caused by over-exploitation of natural sand.
Indiscriminate sand mining in rivers has caused landslides along their banks in many places including HCM City. — VNS
