Bac Lieu withdraws two general hospitals due to long delays

Bac Lieu withdraw $195.6 million hospital due to long-delay (Source:Tuoitre newspaper)

On February 17, the chairman of Bac Lieu People’s Committee asked the Department of Planning and Investment to co-operate with relevant authorities to complete procedures to withdraw the VND4.5trillion ($195.65 million) Phuong Dong International General Hospital project.

The project, which is developed by Phuong Dong International JSC, was licensed in January 2012 to build a new hospital with the capacity of 800 beds. It aimed to reduce the overload at hospitals by meeting some of the demand for medical examination and treatment.

However, so far, the investor has only completed the construction of the fences at the project.

There is also information that Phuong Dong International JSC transferred the project to Cuu Long 39 Service Trading Co., Ltd in June 2020.

Previously, Bac Lieu People’s Committee announced revoking the investment license of the $1.37 trillion ($59.56 million) Bac Lieu-Saigon General Hospital, again due to long delays.

Covering an area of 38,000 square metres in Bac Lieu City, the 10-storey hospital was designed with 400 beds. The first phase of the project had an investment capital of over VND992 billion ($43.13 million), and the capital for the second phase was to be more than VND376 billion ($16.34 million).

In June 2018, the construction of the project was kicked off and was expected to be completed in late 2020. The main reason for the revocation is the lacking capacity of the investor.

At the time these two projects were licensed, the provincial leaders expected that they would contribute to giving better medical check-up and treatment services to locals and train medical staff for Bac Lieu and neighbouring provinces. Thus, the province created optimal conditions for investors to develop these projects, including support for land clearance, shorten time for investment license.