Cat Ba - A GoldenIsland for Investors

 

Cat Ba Archipelago, with an area of approximately 200km2, is world renowned for its wonderful limestone mountains, tropical forests, sea grass, beaches, mysterious caves and diversified ecosystem. From Hai Phong City, tourists can go to Cat Ba Island by land, by water or by air. It takes 45 minutes by boat and visitors can enjoy the wonderful, expansive natural landscape.

 

Last year, the State invested approximately VND 100 billion to expand the electricity supply system for all communes on the island and build infrastructure, roads, bridges and ferries. There is 90 hotels and guesthouses, including 1 three-star hotel, 8 two-star hotels and 8 one-star hotels in Cat Ba District. Some tourism projects are being implemented in Cat Ba District with small scale and by domestic investors. Currently, there is no foreign-invested project in Cat Ba District.

 

Cat Ba’s ecosystem includes 20 species of animals, 69 species of birds and 20 species of reptiles and amphibians. Rare species include the “white Vooc” – an kind of monkey unique to Cat Ba living on sharp cliffs, yellow monkey, chamois and a lot of elegant birds such as kingfisher, sunbird, hoopoe, bird’s nest, sea-turtles, etc. Many of these species are now under the world’s protection to avoid extinction. The flora system consists of 459 branches and 149 families, 250 of which are rare medical plants, especially the needle forest with special functions.

 

Cat Ba is rich in sea animals such as shrimp and many kinds of fish. Besides, there are abalones under the areas reefs. Many of these sea creatures can be found on the menus of bars, hotels and specialty restaurants on the island.

 

Cat Ba is in fact a great green carpet hiding a variety of mysterious and attractive places. Apart from the unique natural species, Cat Ba has Cai Beo Heritage of Ha Long Culture which inhabited the island some 4200-6475 years ago. Coming here, tourists have the chance to discover many amazing things

 

Thanks to its natural characteristics, the flora and fauna systems and its long history, Cat Ba has fantastic tourism advantages. It is a model for tourism development and a preservation community along the Vietnamese coast. The area is abundant in resources for tourism: romantic natural settings, clean environment, long-standing traditions and abundant seafood. All of these are invaluable to the tourism industry. It has also won the preservation and development of many Vietnamese generations for its diversified ecologies of forests, sea, wild caves and beautiful sand-banks. Cat Ba has great potential for natural and ecological tourism. For all these reasons, Cat Ba Island has won UNESCO recognition as a “World Biosphere Preservation Community”.

 

Cat Ba –abundant in natural resources – is an ideal destination for all kinds of tourists from all parts of the world. The area has been attracting an increasing number of tourists year after year. This place is not only a perfect national biological resort for tourists, but also an area full of special opportunities for investors.

 

Cat Ba is now being fully invested to become an important tourism centre of the country, in accordance with the development orientations of the State in general and Hai Phong City in particular.

 

In an area famous for its pristine natural beauty with a unique ecosystem in Vietnam, Cat Ba Resort Community Project, with estimated investment capital of USD 600 million, was divided into two phases, Phase I was implemented with investment capital of USD 300 million to construct an attractive resort among newly-developed resorts throughout the country.

 

The project has an area of approximately 172 ha, in which 25 per cent of total area is mountain and water. The project includes villas of different sizes, four-star and five-star hotels include a selection of dining and resting venues; on-land and underwater entertainment zones; an international conference centre, boating, tourism port, commercial and trading area. The project includes various components to serve visitors of all classes.    

 

This is a large-scale tourism and urban development project located in an area rich in tourism potential. We are confident that the project will be not only a good investment, but will also contribute to the general socio-economic development of the province and the tourism industry of Vietnam. Thus, Vinaconex is actively working with local and international investors to select a qualified investor to implement the project, in which the investor can operate under different modes such as association, joint venture or 100 per cent foreign owned.

 

Preparation for project investment were completed, site clearance was completed. The client is actively commencing Phase I of the project including Villas No. 4, Sports Area, Tung Thu 2 Beach with preliminary area of approximately 10ha. This will be the first synchronous tourism area of the project.

 

The client closely cooperated with specialists of Group70/Pacmar, American Consultancy Company on planning tourism and entertainment areas and preparing the master plan for this project. Group70/Pacmar commented that Cai Gia-Cat Ba Resort Community Project, when finished, will be the most modern resort in Vietnam.

 

Speaking on the potential of the project, leaders of Cat Hai District People’s Committee expected that this project by Vinaconex will promote the tourism industry of Cat Ba Island as well as promote economic development and contribute to making Cat Ba Tourism Area a national–level Tourism Centre. The project will give added value for the tourism industry of Cat Ba Island, one among three main tourism centres of the North of Vietnam, beside Ha Long Bay and Sapa

 

It is estimated that 30 per cent of total investment capital for the project shall be from Vinaconex and the rest from bank loans and investment partners. The Government highly appreciated Cai Gia-Cat Ba Resort Community Project and gave the project many advantages such as exempting land use tax; exempting land rent tax for 15 years, exempting land use tax for 15 years and other advantages on enterprise income tax. The project was also given favourable conditions by the local government.

 

 

After SGRF surveyed Cat Ba Resort Community Project several times, Mr Ahmed Macki, Oman Minister of State Economy, visited Vietnam on 16 April, 2008 and took part in the presentation of Vinaconex – ITC about Cat Ba Resort Community Project at Melia Hotel, Hanoi. He proposed Vinaconex – ITC to sign the MOU with SGRF.

 

After that, the two parties’ representatives, Mr Tran Ngoc Quang – General Director of Vinaconex – ITC and Mr Warith Al Kharusi, SGRF's CEO, signed the MOU with the attendance of Mr Nguyen Sinh Hung, Permanent Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam and Mr Ahmed Macki, Minister of State Economy of Oman. Under the MOU, SGRF will invest about USD 20 million into Vinaconex – ITC and become a strategic shareholder of Vinaconex – ITC.