Hue land of opportunity

Hue is rich in property development potential

Thua Thien-Hue Planning and Investment Department director Le Dinh Khanh told VIR that opportunities had arisen from investment certificates having been revoked for projects proposed by South Korea’s Nam A D&C and Australia’s Lost World.

The committee last week decided to revoke the investment certificates of these projects.

Nam A D&C received an investment certificate in 2008 to develop a $482 million multi-purpose tourism project in Phu Loc district’s Loc Binh commune.

The sprawling resort on 317 hectares was to have included an 18-hole golf course, a villa section, a hotel area, a seafront villa area and an entertainment section.

The investor expected to open the resort in late 2010, before financial difficulties knocked it on the head.

Khanh said two other Korean investors had expressed their willingness to take over this project.  However, Khanh confirmed nothing had been finalised.

The Lost World Resort Hue project is located in Phu Vang district’s Vinh Thanh and Vinh An communes and received a licence in December, 2008.

The $50 million project aimed to build a general tourist park including a central area, 50 villa area, 350-room hotel, convention centre, entertainment and sports area on 50ha.

Khanh said domestic company  Huu Nghi Cement Joint Stock Company was finishing related procedures to take over the project.

Khanh said there were more opportunities for investors to invest in real estate and infrastructure development in Thua Thien-Hue.

The people’s committee at the end of last month held an investment promotion conference in Ho Chi Minh City calling on investors to tap into the province.

Khanh said the conference focused on potentialities and investment opportunities in tourism, service and real estate, industrial zone infrastructure, economic and hi-tech zones.

“Through this conference many foreign investors had information about our pipeline projects and they were very interested in them,” Khanh said.

At the conference, the Singaporean consultant Akitek Tengarra presented a master plan to develop Thua Thien-Hue’s tourism to 2025 and a list of 10 key tourism projects to call on investment.

Those included new residential areas combining between agriculture and tourism, eco-tourism residential areas, Phu Bai airport, Lap An lagoon eco village, Vinh Thanh floating hotel, Thuan An floating hotel, “Venice in paddy field” multi functional property complex, Bach Ma resort, Luong Quan Artist village and a multi functional conference to serve for MICE tourism.

Currently, Singapore’s Banyan Tree Group is building a mammoth resort in Chan May-Lang Co Economic Zone, to the tune of nearly $1 billion.