Exchange City project jumps back to life

The project will help ease the capital city’s growing population pressures

The detailed plan was given to local authorities of the Tu Liem and Cau Giay district and the investor - VIGEBA International Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company (VIGEBA) by the Hanoi Zoning and Architect Department, under the people’s committee.
Nguyen Cao Tri, chairman of Tu Liem district, one of the two districts where the project is located, said this plan was the most important factor to push ahead with the project, which has been delayed for a decade.
Residents in the area are breathing a sigh of relief as the investor will now move ahead with land clearance and compensation.
“The people in the project area have been in a fever due to the fact that their land was taken a long time ago but they still have not received compensation,” Tri said.
Tri asked the investor to closely cooperate with local authorities to announce the details of the plan and the project’s schedule to the public.
According to the plan, the city will require land for many different functions, such as land for building public facilities, high rise buildings, villas and semi-detached houses, parking lots and land for military use.
The city is expected to accommodate at least 12,400 residents in the total area of more than 95 hectares.
The project will also set aside land lot for building more than 840 apartments to compensate people who have been forced to give up their land for the project.
The investor was ordered to give priority to local people to be first to be hired in the new city. VIGEBA general director Phan Tien Dung expected to start the project during the first quarter of 2007.
The investor will also have to complete other related documents appraising the environmental impact. Surrounded by Pham Van Dong, Cau Dien and Hoang Quoc Viet streets and the Nhue river, the project site is considered one of the most prosperous land lots for property projects left in Hanoi.
The Exchange City was initiated since 1996 by a joint venture between Vietnam International Construction Company and the La Cite Des Exchange from Switzerland. The project aims to develop an area of 100ha in Hanoi’s Tu Liem district into a modern international city with total investment capital of $500 million. However, after five years initiating the project, the Swiss partner withdrew because it could not raise enough capital and the project was transferred to VIGEBA.
VIGEBA, by mobilising investment capital from its four partners: the Cuba-Vietnam Construction company, the Hanoi Construction Corporation, the Vietnam Insurance Corporation and the Hanoi Import-Export Corporation, continues the project. And the total investment capital, therefore, was reduced to VND5 trillion ($315 million), from the initial of $500 million. The first plan for the project was granted in March 2002. However the domestic partners very slow to put in their investment capital, which delayed the project.
So far only $9 million has been spent on legal procedures and fences. Because of such slow progress, the city has decided to cut some parts of the project to allocate for other purposes. Nearly 6ha have been allocated to army and police bodies. As a result of these changes the Hanoi People’s Committee required the investor to re-submit its detailed plan according to the changes.




No. 786/November 6-12, 2006