Another super-project registered, raising doubts

Some casinos have been licensed.
The local authorities of two provinces of Phu Tho and Yen Bai late last week gathered to discuss about the project on Hoang Gia resort city, which has the estimated investment capital of four billions dollars.

The Hoang Gia city project has been suggested by Tsinghua Construction & Engineering Company Limited from Macau, China. If the project is accepted, the investors from the US and Australia would join the project later.

Leaders of Phu Tho and Yen Bai, at the working session with the investor last week, expressed their hope that the biggest ever project in the two provinces could serve as the important work in linking regions and help tighten the cooperation of the three provinces of Yen Bai, Phu Tho and Lao Cai and the midland mountainous provinces in the north.

Le Kim Long, Deputy Director of the Yen Bai provincial Planning and Investment Department has confirmed that the two provinces have agreed to allow the investor to carry out the next steps of the project.

The investor plans to build the city on the area of 1664 hectares on Van Hoi lagoon, of which 585 hectares belong to the Phu Tho province, while the other 1079 hectares belong to Yen Bai province. A series of important items of the resort city would be built with the total investment capital of four billion dollars, including a five star hotel, villas, high grade apartments, golf course, entertainment center, tennis center, water sports center and helicopter area.

The investor also plans to build a casino in the area, one of the items that is considered indispensable for huge real estate projects, especially foreign invested projects, because casinos are always believed to bring the biggest money to investors.

Of course, the casino just remains on paper, because this just has been suggested by the investor. Meanwhile, the casino needs to go through a lot of “doors” and get the approval from the Prime Minister to become realistic.

The gigantic project, if approved, would be a good information for Vietnam in the context of the continued foreign direct investment (FDI) decreases. Especially, Phu Tho and Yen Bai have been expecting big tourism projects on the area of Van Hoi lagoon.

However, if the project gets the approval and takes shape, the list of the foreign invested projects which have casinos, will be prolonged.

A question has been raised that if Vietnam really needs one more casino, while there are many other projects which have similar models.

Moreover, another super project has been located not far from the Van Hoi lagoon already – the project on Dream City developed by Viet Han in Tam Nong district in Phu Tho province. The project has the total investment capital of 1.5 billion dollars, covering an area of 2000 hectares, and it also comprises of similar items, including golf course, resorts and casino.

As planned, the investor would kick off the construction of golf course item.

If the project cannot be developed well, it may destroy the natural landscape and the environment. At the working session with the investor, the local authorities of Phu Tho and Yen Bai also mentioned the requirements on preserving the landscapes when developing the project.

Tsinghua showed its strong determination at the meeting with Phu Tho and Yen Bai authorities, saying that it is ready to pay a security to confirm the investment.

As such, the project has got the approval in principle, while the next steps of the projects would depend on how the investor will design the project, if the project is feasible and suitable to the local socio-economic development strategies. It will take a long time more to turn the ideal of Hoang Gia City into realistic.

Besides a series of huge projects such as New City in Phu Yen province (4.3 billion dollars), Silver Shores Hoang Dat in Da Nang (160 million dollars), Nam Hoi An in Quang Nam (four billion dollars), Ho Tram Strip (4.2 billion dollars), Saigon Atlantic (4.1 billion dollars) which will have casinos after getting the approval from competent agencies, the Mui Dinh project in Ninh Thuan is also awaiting the final decision from the government on the casino item.