Thu Thiem is recalibrating itself

The city’s people’s committee has partially adjusted the 1/2,000 scale planning of District 2’s Thu Thiem new urban area, focusing on construction density and height in some parts of the area.

Nguyen Le Dung, deputy director of the Thu Thiem New Urban Area Management Board, said the adjustment was to maximise land use efficiency and increase infrastructure connections with neighbouring areas in the city’s new socio-economic development trend.

He said: “The adjusted planning is not applicable to the five already-licenced projects, including the one developed by Korea’s G.S E&C Corporation, which was allocated a four hectare site by the city’s people’s committee for developing a residential project in accordance with a build-transfer contract.”

The other four projects are the 5.5 hectare Vietnam-Japan  Brain Park ($610.3 million), the 19.5ha Thu Thiem Software Park and two relocation and infrastructure development projects backed by the Deawon-Binh Khanh Joint Stock Company and the consortium of Vietracimex and Korean POS A.C. Limited Architectures & Consultants. The $1.2 billion Thu Thiem Software Park is facing licence withdrawal  because of continuous delays in payment of land use fees.

Meanwhile, the city’s people’s committee has also approved the Deso Defrain Souquets Company from France to conduct a 1/500 master plan for the central square and Riverside Park project in the urban area.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have also put the country’s highest skyscraper and observatory tower project back on track to call for investments. The project was earlier backed by South Korea’s Lotte Group, with a total investment of $2 billion. According to the Thu Thiem New Urban Area Management Board, as of late November, there were 26 investors, mainly joint ventures between local and foreign businesses having shown interest in this skyscraper project.

Endorsed in 1996 as one of the city’s three major new urban areas, besides District 7’s Phu My Hung and Cu Chi District’s Tay Bac, Thu Thiem has been planned to become a new urban, financial services and commercial hub connecting the city and the neighbouring dynamic provinces of Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Dong Nai.