Long Hung commune, Long Thanh district of Dong Nai province has become an attractive destination for real estate investors with the most prominent area being the Long Hung open economic eco-urban area project. A Vietnam Business Forum reporter has an interview with Mr Bui Thanh Truc, Chairman and CEO of Dongnai General Agriculture Services United Cooperative (Donacoop), the project’s investor.
Is there a high risk in investing in the Long Hung open economic eco-urban area project when the Vietnamese real estate market is frozen?
The global economic downturn affects the real estate market; however, due attention should be paid to restore economic sectors, particularly construction of roads, bridges, residential areas and trade centres in order to revive the economy.
The Long Hung open economic zone is located at a strategic location of Dong Nai province and the Southeastern region, which is near the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway and a future international airport. The project is 25 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City centre.
Dong Nai province is an important area, which will become an urban, high-tech, service, education-healthcare centre, a national forest ecological area and a highlight in the eastern parts of Ho Chi Minh City.
Particularly, the project belongs to the Dong Nai River basin, which is covered by a series of canals, facilitating waterway traffic and tourism development. The project is also of great social significance.
What is socially significant about the project?
Dong Nai is famous for industrial development with a wide range of enterprises that recruit a large labour force, which includes foreigners. Day by day, thousands of employees have to travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Dong Nai province and vice verse, causing traffic jams at gateways to Ho Chi Minh City, which wastes people’s time. This also means that real estate, trading and service sectors in Dong Nai have not yet met demand.
The Long Hung open economic eco-urban area comprises three sub-projects: the 366-hectare Water Front city costing US$750 million, the 304-hectare Aqua city with investment of US$520 million and the 227-hectare Long Hung new city costing US$270 million. A joint venture consisting of Donacoop, An Phu Long Joint Stock Company, Vina Capital and Keppel Land group of Singapore carries out the projects, which are expected to ease accommodation overloads in Ho Chi Minh City, serve high income people in Dong Nai province and resettle people displaced by the Long Hung open economic eco-urban area.
How is site clearance carried out?
Wide areas are fallow because the agricultural land in the commune has been leased to people from other localities since 2001. Meanwhile, weak infrastructure in residential areas leads to flooding and the collapse of houses. We have taken some drastic policies to compensate people. In the first phase, 170 households along river banks and in agricultural areas were relocated and we have started building infrastructure for the project.
In addition, we find jobs for local people in industrial parks of Dong Nai province and the rest will work for craft villages.
Has Donacoop made preparations for trading of the project’s products?
We have recently cooperated with several real estate trading companies in Dong Nai province to launch Donaland real estate transaction floor, which focuses on real estate trading, appraisal, auction and management. Donaland aims at managing real estate transactions by cooperatives, joint ventures to serve the demands of consumers and create healthy real estate-related relations.
Reported by Phan Thanh
Vietnamese
