Tuan Chau Ha Tay

Construction begins today on a VND$5 trillion (US$313 million) tourism project occupying a 254-hectare area in the northern province of Ha Tay, with work scheduled to be completed in late 2010.

Investor Tuan Chau Ha Tay Joint Stock Company said that the namesake tourism complex, located adjacent to the historic Thay Pagoda, would comprise a five-star hotel, a villa resort, an international meeting center, three golf courses, a trade center, a cultural area, and other entertainment facilities.

The company’s director, Edward Minh Chi, mentioned that the high-end hotel and villa area will offer tourists 500 rooms each, with an additional 1,000 luxury apartments on site.

Another outstanding feature of the Tuan Chau Ha Tay project is a three-story trade center covering 180,000 square meters, representing the largest trade center of its kind in the country.

The three golf courses include an eighteen-hole course for advanced golfers, and a practice course and mini-course for amateurs.

All courses, designed by renowned international golf course architect group
Thompson Perrett & Lobb, are outfitted with light systems to enable night play.

The investor expects the tourism complex will increase the number of visitors to Thay Pagoda from 30,000 to 1 million people per year.

The bulk of tourists who currently travel to Ha Tay Province visit the Huong (Perfume) Pagoda, Thay Pagoda and Tay Phuong Pagoda, three ancient architectural sites steeped with cultural and historical significance.

Work begins on two Binh Thuan industrial parks

Ground will be broken on February 28 for two industrial parks in Ham Thuan Nam district, the Binh Thuan province administration has announced.

The 143ha Ham Kiem 1 Industrial Park will be developed by the province’s Hoang Quan Consulting, Trading and Service Joint Stock Company, and is expected to cost 177 billion VND (11 million USD).

The 436ha Ham Kiem II Industrial Park will be built by Binh Tan Consumer Product Manufacturer, or Bita’s as it is commonly known, at a cost of 476 billion VND. By the end of this year, the contractors will complete clearance of the sites and install water, electricity, and telecom systems and around 70 percent of the road networks.

Vina Capital Square

The central city of Da Nang has granted a licence to the VinaCapital Fund to build a US$325 million urban area in the eastern area of the Han River Bridge, the largest real estate project in the city so far.

The 9-ha VinaCapital Square urban area will house two shopping centres, covering 30,000 square metres each, a 5star hotel with 300 rooms and a 4 star hotel with 300 rooms, and a 25,000-square metre convention and exhibition centre.

Apart from a 42-storey office for lease building, view to Song Han river and Son Tra island.

VinaCapital will also build more than 1,000 high-grade apartments (120 – 125 m2 ) and about 300 villas (180 m2/ villas ).. All Car park underground.

Set to work in quarter 3/2008, with stage 1 capital is 125 million USD. Anticipation, finished work at 2011.

1.3 billion USD park licensed in Ba Ria-Vung Tau

A project to build a park named Wonderful World in the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau has got license from the local authority.

The provincial People’s Committee granted the investment certificate to the Good Choice USA – Viet Nam to carry out the 1.3 billion USD project, which will cover 155 ha in Bau Trung, Nguyen An Ninh ward, Vung Tau city.

The project will include a five-star hotel with 2,500 rooms, four four-star hotels with 4,000 rooms, exhibition and conventional centres, an entertainment area with a Ferris wheel, a water palace and a cluster of Viet miniature landscapes of the Viet Nam and the world.

Infrastructure construction of the project is expected to be completed in 2010 and its entertainment items, as from 2011.

Shady details uncovered about $10bil investment project

The $10bil tourism project in the central province of Quang Nam remains a hot topic. The proposed investor, US-based Global C&D Inc, registered its business in Nevada with total investment capital of $100,000.

In the report on the project to the Prime Minister on February 4, the Quang Nam People’s Committee wrote that the $10bil tourism project will be the biggest ever in the central region with total investment capital of $10bil. The investor is the US-based Global C&D Inc. and Tano Capital and Spring Investment.

The Quang Nam People’s Committee’s report said this is a highly feasible project, which fits the provincial plan to develop tourism projects on the coastal areas. If approved, the project will help develop Quang Nam and the central region’s economy.

However, an official working as the foreign investment project assessor and had the chance to read Quang Nam authorities’ document on the $10bil project, said the document lacked the information that such a massive investment would usually entail.

To date, no ministry has released any official opinion on the project.

Tuoi tre newspaper has spent time tracking down the profile of the investor. Global C&D was registered in Nevada on October 21, 2005 with the investment capital of $100,000 under Chairman and General Director Tong Ich Pham.

Global C&D does not have an official website and besides the information about the project provided by Quang Nam authorities, there is no further information via an internet search or other relevant sources.

This is strange, as other US companies all have their own websites. The email address left by the investor at the Quang Nam People’s Committee’s office is a Yahoo address. No big company wants partners to contact them via Yahoo accounts.

The website of Tano Capital, the co-investor, provides a contact address in Hoi An, Vietnam.

In an interview with Charles Johnson, the founder of Tano Capital in October 2007, which is featured on the website, Mr. Johnson says Tano manages the total assets of $200mil, and that the company has invested $40mil in China and made another investment in India.

As such, by the end of 2007, the total capital of the company had not reached 500mil, as he said.

Tong Ich Pham, Chairman and General Director of Global C&D, wrote in his email to local newspapers that his group still needs more working sessions with Quang Nam province. He wrote that many things still need done and he will provide more details soon.

* Vo Ta Han, Senior Advisor to Swiss UBS AG in Singapore: The first thing relevant ministries should do when working with big investors is ask them to prove their financial capability. Send several millions of dollars to a bank account to show your financial capability and we will talk about projects after.

* Tran Van Tho, Economics Prof from Japan’s Waseda University: The best solution now is for Quang Nam authorities ask the investor to pay the fee for assessing the investment project. The provincial authorities can use the sum of money to hire an independent consultancy firm to examine the feasibility of the project. If the firm provides a good assessment about the project, the provincial authorities will consider the details; it should only submit the project to the Prime Minister when it finds the project highly feasible.

Half-billion-dollar investments committed to Danang

On Tuesday witnessed more than half a billion U.S. dollars committed to property projects in the central coast city of Danang on the sidelines of a regional investment, trade and tourism forum.

South Korea’s Kreves Development Co., whose parent is Yujin Kreves Co., signed a contract with the city to invest US$200mil to develop apartment and office building projects.

The company will develop two 28-story and 30-story apartment buildings for 1,600 households, a 42-story complex, an international school, and a department store in Hoa Cuong Bac District.

The projects will supply houses for Korean and foreigners who are doing business in Danang’s industrial parks and neighboring ones.

Yujin Kreves Co. entered in Vietnam some 10 years ago with a factory of metal tableware goods and stainless steel plates built.

The city awarded a license to VinaCapital to develop the VinaCapital Square urban development project. The new town east of the Han River Bridge in Son Tra District will be capitalized at US$325mil, one of the biggest real estate projects in the city.

VinaCapital Square will cover nine hectares, comprising two shopping centers, two 4-5-star hotels with 600 rooms, a 25,000 sq.m conference centre and a 42-storey office building. The investor also plans to build more than 1,300 high-grade apartments and villas.

At the forum, officials and business executives highlighted investment trade and tourism potentials in the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC), but urged reforms should be taken to effectively tap them.

They said many things, especially investment policies and administrative reforms, remained to be done to foster EWEC growth from mere transport connectivity to economic prosperity.

The forum was part of the EWEC Week, which started Monday with the participation of more than 500 investors and government officials from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar and representatives of donors and development partners.

Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar have roads connected to EWEC provinces after the opening of Friendship Bridge II, and are building frameworks of cooperation between their provinces to make EWEC a real economic corridor.

EWEC will prove to be attractive to investors as it will help to reduce costs for goods and passenger transport between the four countries, investors said.

Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh said the completion of the corridor would be an opportunity for the countries to better access natural resources, seafood and energy.

Experts said at the meeting that the central part of Vietnam had many advantages to make the most of EWEC for fueling socio-economic growth.

The 1,450-km corridor stretches from Myanmar to Vietnam’s Danang through Thailand and Laos. Danang can be used as a gateway to the Eastern Sea by Mekong sub-region nations.

The central region has many infrastructure projects underway. Domestic and international airports under renovation include Danang International, Phu Bai in Hue, and Chu Lai in Quang Nam.

There are many seaports under construction or upgrade, such as Chan May in Thua Thien-Hue, Tien Sa in Danang, Ky Ha in Quang Nam, Sa Ky in Quang Ngai and Vung Ang in Ha Tinh.

Danang and Hue will become the hubs in the central region with a series of industrial zones like Phu Bai, Lien Chieu and Hoa Khanh, and other economic zones, namely Lao Bao, Vung Ang, Chan May-Lang Co, Chu Lai and Dung Quat.

Ayumi Konishi, country director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Vietnam Resident Mission, said the bank had supported development of infrastructure and helped reduce poverty along the corridor.

He told the Daily that many Japanese investors were attending the forum to see whether they could invest along the corridor.

Somsavat Lengsavad, deputy prime minister of Laos, said: “We would like to request our meeting to consider together on how we can realize the concept of “Four Countries, One Destination”.

At the forum, two international partners who do not belong to EWEC signed agreements on investment projects in Danang during the EWEC Week.

Thang Long City View

Location: Tran Phu Street – Ha Dong City – Hanoi

– Total Area: 2.600m2

– Floors: 33 fls.

U – City project

Dự án Khu căn hộ cao cấp U – City (dự án Khu nhà ở Văn Khê mở rộng), thành phố Hà Đông, tỉnh Hà Tây thuộc ranh giới lập quy hoạch chi tiết xây dựng tỉ lệ 1/2000. Trục đô thị phía Bắc thành phố Hà Đông và có vị trí liền kề Khu nhà ở Văn Khê đang được chủ đầu tư là Công ty cổ phần Sông Đà – Thăng Long đầu tư xây dựng, được giới hạn bởi:

– Phía Bắc giáp với đường trục phát triển phía Bắc Thành phố Hà Đông (nối liền với đường Lê Văn Lương kéo dài của Hà Nội), mặt cắt ngang đường 40m.

– Phía Tây giáp với Khu đất dịch vụ Xã La Khê.

– Phía Đông giáp Khu nhà ở mới phường Vạn Phúc.

– Phía Nam giáp Khu nhà ở Văn Khê.

Vietnam’s first subway line ready to break ground

Set to run by 2014, HCMC’s first subway is expected to be a cheaper, safer mode of transport.

For just VND9,000 per ticket, a rider on the future Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien subway line can cover the same distance in the same amount of time that would cost a motorbike rider over VND10,000.

The statement was made by deputy head of Ho Chi Minh City’s Urban Railway Management Board Tran Thi Anh Nguyet.

“VND10,000 (US$0.63) is the average price for 0.8 liters of gasoline a motorbike would need to traverse 20 km.

That’s not to mention other maintenance costs motor drivers have to pay and the high risk of traffic accidents they face,” Nguyet said.

“They can not relax as train passengers can either.”

The subway route – which is slated to begin construction on February 21 and set for completion in 2014 – is part of the country’s master plan to build six subways, lines 107 km in length, and three other above-ground monorail routes in HCMC by 2020.

The line is estimated to cost over $1 billion.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) will provide $904.7 million in official development assistance loans, and the city will be responsible for contributing an additional $186.6 million.

JBIC has also helped develop a master plan for the route and Japan’s Nippon Koei group will later consult on a detail design.

The route, to run through districts 1, 2, 9, Binh Thanh and Thu Duc in HCMC as well as Binh Duong Province’s Di An District, includes a 2.6 km underground, 3-station downtown section starting from District 1’s Ben Thanh Market, and a 17.1 km above-ground route through11 other stations including one near Suoi Tien Park in Thu Duc District.

The ground-breaking ceremony will take place at the route’s final station, Long Binh Depot in District 9, where Nguyet said local officials had completed relocating and compensating residents living in project areas.

Other districts have until this June to hand over the sites allotted for the subway route.

Construction of the subway depots, which Nguyet said would be put up for bidding after the design is complete, is scheduled to start early next year.

French engineering group Alstom, a leading energy and railway equipment supplier, has expressed interest in becoming one of the main contractors for the line.

Two other Japanese groups, Nippon Koei and Sumitomo, have also shown interest in supplying equipment and building the system.

Nguyet assures that while the line’s contractor is yet to be chosen, it will be built using thelatest technology.

A world-class subway

Nguyet says that all stations along the route will be designed to accommodate the disabled.

Automatic ticket vending machines for instance, along with telephone booths, restrooms, subway doors and information bulletins will all be accessible to the handicapped and visually impaired.

The subway train, with six cars in all, is expected to carry 162,000 passengers per day in the first phase, from 2014 to 2020.

Over the following decade, the train will be upgraded to accommodate 635,000 passengers daily, and in 2040, it will be able to carry 800,000 passengers each day.

During rush hours, there will be one trip every five minutes, with a journey from the first to last station taking 29 minutes.

Other infrastructure such as parking lots, bus stations and shopping centers will also be designed to complement the subway line, Nguyet said.

OTHER METRO PROJECTS IN THE WORKS FOR HCMC

1. Ben Thanh Market-Tham Luong route: linking a 19-km stretch from District 1 to Tan Binh District; and Ben Thanh market-Mien Tay Coach Station: linking a 24-km stretch from District 1 to Binh Thanh District.
Investor: Germany-based Siemens Group

2. Nguyen Oanh-Nguyen Van Linh Metro route: linking a 24-km stretch from District Go Vap to District 7.
Investor: China’s Shanghai Foreign Service and Economic Cooperation Co.

3. Saigon Bridge-Can Giuoc Coach Station: linking a 17-km stretch from District 2 to District 8.
Investor: Spain-based DEFFEX Group

4. Ba Queo T-Junction – Phu Lam Roundabout: linking a 6-km stretch from District Tan Phu to District 6
Investor: Germany’s Dywidag Co. weary passengers to HCMC.

Source: VNA

The Nam Hai – Quang Nam Province

An all villa resort, The Nam Hai is located on a 31 hectare site and offers 60 villa-hotel rooms and 40 one-to-five bedroom privately owned residences, each featuring a luxurious infinity pool. The resort, stretching on a kilometer of untouched beachfront property on famous China Beach of Vietnam, is voted by Forbes magazine as one of ten most beautiful beaches of the world.

It is managed by the leading luxury resort operator GHM (General Hotel Management), whose Chairman, Adrian Zecha, founded the Aman Resorts. The Nam Hai is designated as one of the Leading Hotels of the World.

THE NAM HAI

Luxury beach-front vacation homes enclave fronted by the white sands of China Beach
Location: Hoi An, Quang Nam Province

Address:

Dien Duong – Dien Ban – Quang Nam Province

Phone: (0511) 840 850

Website: thenamhai.com