Golfers sink next winners for Danang

Deverlopers are putting a swing into the country’s central region

A group of South Korean investors are conducting a feasibility study to build an 18-hole golf course in Hoa Vang district, according to Danang Investment Promotion Centre.
The project will be spearheaded by Lado Filter Engineering, operator of a $3.5 million factory that produces automobile filters in the city.
Centre director, Lam Quang Minh, said Korean developers intended to pour around $10 million into the golf course with an adjoining hotel and villa complex added afterwards.
The developers have not submitted an application for an investment licence, since they are surveying the site to determine how to go ahead with the project, said Minh.
Another golf development underway in the city is a 36-hole golf course on a 300-hectare piece of land bordering Quang Nam province, home to two world heritage sites: Hoi An ancient town and My Son ruins.
Minh said municipal authorities have agreed in principle with Ho Chi Minh City-based Huy Hoang Company, the firm that built a golf course in Dong Nai province, to go ahead with this development.
He added Huy Hoang was negotiating with Danang People’s Committee to buy half of the land while it would pay rent on the remaining half.
“The municipal authorities are stepping up land clearance to provide land for the investors,” he said.
Danang tourism authorities are hoping this project will commence construction this year, while the Korean-backed project will ‘tee-off’ next year, helping to diversify the tourist offerings in the region.
In a tourism development plan, the city’s tourism department anticipate major hotel and entertainment projects to turn Danang into one of the most popular tourist areas in the country.
The department has a list of 13 beach resorts and five hotel projects to be built in the next three years in the city’s downtown and coastal areas.
Among these, Saigon-tourist Holding Company, the country’s largest tour and hotel operator, will be building two beach resorts.
Another substantial project is a $250-million entertainment resort proposed by Hanoi-based Quang Dai joint-stock company.
The city hopes the project, which will provide entertainment services exclusively for foreigners, will get off the ground in 2006.
Two large resort projects, a $24 million Vegas Beach Club Resort in Non Nuoc beach and a $19-million resort and entertainment facility in Son Tra, are currently under construction and scheduled to open next year.
Danang currently has two upmarket hotels, both of which are located in Non Nuoc Beach: the five-star Furama Resort and the four-star Sandy Beach Resort.
The city is the international gateway into central Vietnam and its airport receives flights from Bangkok and Taipei in addition to domestic services from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
It is strategically located between three world heritage sites: two in Quang Nam province and one in the former imperial city of Hue.