Can Tho projects are set to walk the plank to walk the plank

Can Tho is famous for its floating markets

The property projects under threat were licenced back in 2006 by Can Tho People’s Committee along with two other service and tourism area projects.

The seven projects were originally slated to cover  20 hectares in the city’s most populous zone, the 126ha Cai Khe islet.

To date, however, only Dia Cau Commercial and Service Company has pledged to kick off its 9.4ha resort and entertainment project on Cai Khe next month, which is part of the Hau River tourism area development. Another project has just completed its compensation plan, while the other five developments remain on paper only.

In a recent meeting with developers of the five projects with no sign of life, Can Tho People’s Committee vice chairman Vo Thanh Thong warned that investment licences would become null and void if the developers reneged on their commitments.

But a representative of Thuy Duong Joint Stock Company said the company’s plans for a 5.2ha high-end apartment, commercial space and office for lease complex project had stalled because of ground clearance issues.

Despite the company receiving approval for the project’s design back in 2008, the project is still up in the air.

“There is no empty land to construct resettlement houses for residents to be  relocated and some of the local residents did not accept the compensation,” the representative said.

Meanwhile, Tran Vinh Hau from Thanh Tra Company, developer of the 3ha Cai Khe five-star hotel project, said that the company could not build its project because plans to compensate residents from the city’s land fund development centre had yet to materialise. 

However, a representative of Can Tho’s Planning Department disagreed, saying that Thanh Tra had consistently failed to join hands with city’s land fund development centre to compensate residents.

The three remaining projects in question are Hao Tan Co. Ltd’s 7,200 square metre five-star hotel in Cai Khe ward, Cao Cuong Co-operative’s 3,200sqm service commercial project and An Nghiep Phat Housing Development’s 4,500sqm Cai Khe trade centre.