Swiss firm evicted from Phu Quoc deal

Big plans call for Phu Quoc Island to be developed as a major tourist destination

Le Van Thi, Chairman of Kien Giang Provincial People’s Committee, in a document released two weeks ago, said that the provincial leaders “agree to reject in-principle approval for Asia Pearl project” which was proposed by Trustee Suisse Group and Vinaconex R&D six years ago.

“The investors did not do what they had promised before. We have reserved a site for them for a long time, but they have done nothing,” said a senior official at the island’s Investment Management Authority, adding that the local authorities had even refused other investors interested in the site for the Asia Pearl project.

Trustee Suisse initially proposed the Asia Pearl project in 2007 with the total investment capital of around $2.6 billion. This project, covering 102 hectares, is the largest tourism project that have ever been proposed on Phu Quoc Island, where the Vietnamese government planned to develop as a large centre of recreation, trade, finance and banking. The Trustee Suisse’s project attracted attention of the public community as it was one of the largest foreign invested projects proposed in Vietnam at that time.

In August 2011, after four years of waiting for the investors’ specific actions to develop the project, the local authorities set a six-month deadline for Trustee Suisse and Vinaconex R&D to finish a detailed master plan of the Asia Pearl project and plans for land compensation and resettlement. In response, the investors stated they would continue pursuing the project and would meet the deadline.

Phu Quoc, 120 kilometres off the coast of southern Kien Giang province, is among the most attractive destinations for developers of tourism projects in Vietnam, with more than 70 projects having granted investment certificates, with the total registered investment capital of $2.2 billion.

For instance, Hong Kong’s Millennium Group, via its subsidiary Starbay Holdings, gained an investment certificate for building a $1.6 billion resort on this island.