First hi-tech park attracts over $1.2 bil

The total investment into Vietnam’s first hi-tech park has climbed to over US$1.2 billion after its management board granted investment certificates to five new businesses early this week, VnExpress reports.

Newly-licensed projects at the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park in Hanoi include a  $50-million complex of hi-end constructions specific for programmers, invested by the FPT Software Joint-stock company. Works on the complex is expected to be completed in 2016.

The FPT Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park Development Co. Ltd., meanwhile, has invested $35 million in a hi-tech industry area which will provide investors there with technical infrastructure of international standards, according to the news website.

So far, the Hoa Lac Park has attracted 47 projects, Nguyen Van Lang, deputy minister of Science and Technology and also head of the park’s management board, told VnExpress.

From now until Tet, Vietnam’s traditional Lunar New Year festival, another 12 investment certificates will be granted, Lang said, adding that they are also reviewing 38 other potential projects.

Established in October, 1998 with a total area of nearly 16,000 hectares, the Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park was built as a “science city” with all relevant services and functional areas for software, research and development, hi-tech, and education and training, the news source said.

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Hanoi firm to build $2 bln theme park near HCMC

An artist impression of the Happyland theme park and amusement complex in Long An Province

Photo: Photo courtesy of Khang Thong Corp

Hanoi-based infrastructure developer Khang Thong Corp will invest $2 billion to build the Happyland theme park and amusement complex in Long An Province.

The 338-hectare complex in Ben Luc District, situated 20 minutes by road from Ho Chi Minh City, will have a $600 million theme park designed and operated by the US-based Steelman Partner, Singapore-based Meinhardt Group, and UK-based PricewaterhouseCoopers and Savills Property Group.

It will reportedly be modeled on famous international theme parks like Walt Disney and Universal Studio.

The complex, licensed in June, will have an exhibition center, a commercial center, hotels in categories ranging from three-to five-star, a water park, film studio, discotheque, museums, apartments, and villas.

Khang Thong will obtain loans from Agribank, BIDV, and Oceanbank and sell stakes in its subsidiary, Phu An Infrastructure Investment and Development Co, to foreign investors.

Work is expected to begin next January and finish in April 2014.

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Camping out in Cat Tien

The park rangers take the campers around the park in pick-up trucks - Photo: Ngoc Tram

Located in the south of Vietnam, approximately 150 km north of HCMC, Cat Tien National Park or Nam Cat Tien is home to 600 species of flora, hundreds of precious medicinal herbs, over 60 kinds of orchids, 240 species of birds, and over 50 species of animals, including the endangered Javan rhino, one of Asia’s rarest mammals. It is also home the golden cheeked gibbon. Cat Tien has a primate rescue center to rehabilitate gibbons that were kept as pets or mascots so they can re-enter the wild.

The 35,000-hectare primeval forest has attracted researchers, archaeologists, explorers and tourists from all over the world who want to take an adventurous trip and experience nature.

The forest landscapes are beautiful, abounding in hills, waterfalls, rivers and centuries old trees. Some winding river sections form sandy beaches beside deep ponds where people can swim. Legends say that these were places where angels descended on earth to frolic and enjoy pure cool streams, so it was named Nam Cat Tien, meaning angels descend on the southern land.

From HCMC, take National Highway 20 for 125 kilometers and turn left, go another 24 kilometers and take a ferry-boat to cross Dong Nai river to the main headquarters of Cat Tien National Park.

When you camp or walk on the tracks in the Park, you have to be careful to avoid leeches. Wearing long trousers and socks helps. Cat Tien is mostly wilderness, so it is a great destination for campers and nature lovers.

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Trees at downtown park to be chopped for car park

HCMC – The Investment and Development for Underground Space Corporation (IUS) has said it will cut down 27 large trees, and remove and transplant 362 other trees in Le Van Tam Park in downtown HCMC to build the city’s first underground car park.

IUS will also make the pavements narrower around the park, bordered by Vo Thi Sau, Dien Bien Phu and Hai Ba Trung streets, to make the road wider, Le Tuan, president and CEO of IUS said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

The city government has already approved the reduced pavement width to reduce traffic congestion when the parking lot opens at the end of 2013, he said.

IUS called on Wednesday’s press conference after local newspapers reported two weeks ago that IUS had started construction without a permit or legal land-use procedures.

Tuan said on Wednesday that IUS still hadn’t received the permit from the city’s Department of Construction because they had yet to agree on land use procedures. “We expect to have a construction permit in five or six months, then we will officially start construction of the project,” said the CEO. “The biggest difficulty now is to ascertain how much land would be exempt from land use taxes.”

The US$110 million parking lot will be able to accommodate over 2,000 motorbikes, 1,250 cars and 28 buses and trucks in five underground storeys. The corporation said the fees would be a maximum VND7,000 for motorbikes and VND80,000 for cars.

The Daily reported two weeks ago the city authorities ruled that the corporation should place a deposit of VND43 billion at a local bank as a guarantee that it would restore Le Van Tam Park. Tuan admitted on Wednesday that IUS still hadn’t placed the deposit.

He said the corporation has hired a company to relocate and replant the trees. After the corporation completes the construction of the car park, Le Van Tam Park will be renovated according to a new design.

According to the built-operate-transfer contract for the car park signed between IUS and the city government, the corporation will operate the car park within 50 years.

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