Vietnam has won a high profile lawsuit in which South Fork Ltd Company of the US sued the Binh Thuan provincial People’s Committee for an indemnity of US$3.75 billion for costs and expenses it spent on its project.
South Fork was licensed by the Vietnam Ministry of Planning and Investment in 2004 to invest in a tourist park in Hoa Thang commune, Bac Binh district, Binh Thuan province.
In the first phase, the provincial People’s Committee handed over more than 330ha of land to the US firm and asked the investor to complete its legal capital over three months.
It also said it would revoke the investment license in the following five months unless the project got off the ground, even though the investor proved it had completed the legal capital.
During an inspection in Mid 2010, the provincial People’s Committee found development or construction of the project had not begun.
Thanh Nien News Wire reported in 2007 the provincial committee licensed Duong Lam Joint Stock Company to exploit titanium on 120ha of the aforementioned project following an agreement between South Fork and Duong Lam.
However, the US firm later stopped its project on land grant excuses and sued the provincial committee to the International Court of Justice, represented by US law firm Dardenne & Boyd.
The land allocated for the project is currently vacant, and Duong Lam company is also not allowed to carry out its titanium exploitation project there.
Late last year the International Court of Justice overruled South Fork’s lawsuit and asked the US firm to pay the Vietnamese side’s court fees, including arbitration fees and other expenses.
This is the first international investment lawsuit Vietnam has won through negotiations with the International Court of Justice, helping to honour Vietnam’s investment climate, said a Ministry of Justice representative at a conference in Hanoi on January 18.
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