The paradox was highlighted in the latest report by the city People’s Committee on the current situation of State-owned housing and land use by administrative agencies in the city.

Carried out at the request of the Ministry of Construction, the report said city administrative agencies occupied up to 897 ha for public offices and facilities while 8.4 million sq.m or 846 ha of land and housing are being misused or reduced to disuse.

The 897-ha area has yet to include 45,000 sq.m of housing, 195,000 sq.m of illegally occupied housing and land as well as more than 5,500 sq.m of land for lease, said the report.

Of the more than 2,000 ha managed by city administrative agencies, the departments of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs; Agriculture and Rural Development; Health; and Public Security occupy 82.5 per cent or 1,677ha, constituting the four biggest occupants of public land in the city.

District 2 People’ s Committee has 267.062sq.m of public land, which is 24 times as much as District 4 and nearly the total area of public land in districts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11 and 12.

Other social organisations and State agencies lack sufficient land with the municipal Women’s Union and Music Association each managing 110 sq.m, and the Society of Lawyers a mere 66 sq.m.

The Housing Development Fund has yet to have a headquarters despite its establishment a long time ago.

The city Department of Health has 104 ha of disused land and 657 ha of misused land while many city districts are struggling to find land to build hospitals and medical centers.

Many civil servants noted that if disused land owned by the department had been transferred to the public, the city would not have had to go through the trouble of relocating people to claim 40 ha for the hi-tech medical complex.