Rusalka saga gaining some fresh legs

The province is home to stunning scenery popular with touristsPhoto: Le Toan

Nguyen Duc Chi, former chairman of Rus-Invest-Tur Corporation (RIT), the developer of the Rusalka resort, is now a partner with his younger brother Nguyen Duc Tan in a new entity called Focus Travel Nha Trang Corporation. Their company has been granted a new investment certificate for the Rusalka project  by Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee. 

According to Khanh Hoa Provincial Department of Planning and Investment, Focus Travel Nha Trang inherits all the rights, responsibilities and debts of RIT, which began as a joint venture of three Russian entities in 2002 with the registered investment capital of $15 million.

Now, Focus Travel Nha Trang Corporation – plans to develop this project in the next two years, but there are many resorts having been built in Nha Trang Bay for over eight years, so the business opportunity is not as great as it was in 2005.

Local officials said the revival of the resort, now dubbed Champarama Resort & Spa, will test the ability of state management agencies and the private sector to realise the potential of the original idea. It is situated on 46.1 hectares on one of the most beautiful locations of central famous Nha Trang coast, one of Vietnam’s top tourist destinations. It also represents a chance for redemption for Chi, whose role in the scandal is a matter of some dispute.

The Rusalka project was halted  in 2005 as Chi - the only lawful representative of RIT - was accused of acquiring 31,400 tonnes of rice from Tra Vinh Food Company without paying the debt of $5.7 million. The investigation by the police at that time also accused Chi of forging signatures and documents to illegally gain an investment licence for developing the Rusalka project.

One year later, the police distrained the Rusalka resort for investigation while the Ministry of Planning and Investment revoked the investment licence. In 2008, Chi was sentenced to five and a half years imprisonment.

But the People’s Supreme Court later ruled that Chi’s crime “was not related to petition for the investment licence of the Rusalka project” and removed the distrainment record after Chi was released from the prison in 2010. He retained the property rights for the project.

When he received the investment licence in 2002, Chi said the Rusalka project would comprise a five-star hotel, a nine-hole golf course, an international convention and 50 villas. The Rusalka resort is now just a wild site along the beach in Nha Trang Bay with uncompleted properties. Eight years of delay has left the site in poor condition.

“This is wastefulness,” said a state investment official, who spoke anonymously and was involved in handling this case eight years ago. “We had better choice for pushing the uncompleted resort project ahead at that time, but we didn’t choose to.”

In 2005 Chi proposed selling Rusalka to an American firm. However, the proposal was not approved by the governmental authorities because Chi previously had committed himself not to sell the project.