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Cat Ba gets one more resort
A US$600 million resort project, named Cat Ba Resort Community, is underway on Cat Ba Island, a famous tourism centre in northern Vietnam.
The construction of Cat Ba Resort Community Project, with estimated investment capital of $600 million, is divided into two phases. Phase 1 is being implemented with investment capital of $300 million to construct an attractive resort among newly-developed resorts throughout the country.
The project has an area of approximately 172ha in which one-fourth of total area is mountain and water. The project includes villas of different areas, four-star and five-star hotels; features include a selection of dining, resting venues; on-land, underwater entertainment zones; 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 project on tourism and urban development and located in a potential tourism-rich area. The owner company is confident that the project will be not only a good investment opportunity for investors but also make a contribution to the general socio-economic development of the project province and the tourism industry of Vietnam. Thus, Vinaconex- ITC is actively implementing the project as well as working with local and international investors to select a qualified investor to implement the project in which the investor can operate in different types, i.e. association, joint venture or 100% foreign owned.
Preparation tasks for project investment have been completed, as well as site clearance. 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 of tourism and entertainment areas and prepared a 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 currently.
The project will give added value for the tourism industry of the Cat Ba Islands, one of three main tourism centres of the north of Vietnam besides Ha Long Bay and Sapa.
It is estimated that 30% of total investment capital for the project will come from Vinaconex-ITC and the rest from bank loans and investment partners. The government highly praises Cai Gia-Cat Ba Resort Community Project and has given 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 in enterprise income tax. The project was also given favourable conditions by the local government.
Cat Ba is one of the most famous tourism areas of Vietnam and attracted more than 500,000 domestic and foreign visitors last year, of which approximately 20% were foreign visitors. Cat Ba Island under Cat Ba district, Hai Phong city, 150 km from Hanoi, is the biggest island of the 366 limestone islands of the Cat Ba Archipelago. The Cat Ba Archipelago, with an area of approximately 200km2, is world renowned for its wonderful limestone mountains, tropical forest, euphorbia, sea grass, beaches and mysterious caves and diversified ecosystem.
From Hai Phong city, tourists can go to Cat Ba Island by land, by waterway or by air. It takes visitors 45 minutes by waterway and visitors can enjoy the wonderful and gigantic national landscape that God gave this city.
In recent years, the state has invested approximately VND100 billion to expand the electricity supply system for all communes of the island district and construct infrastructure, roads, bridges and ferries. There are 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 on a small scale and by domestic investors. Currently, there is no foreign-invested project in Cat Ba district.
But in April 2008, after SGRF surveyed Cat Ba Resort Community Project several times, the State General Reserve Fund of OMAN (SGRF) decided to sign an MOU with Vinaconex-ITC. Under the MOU, SGRF will invest about USD 20m in Vinaconex-ITC and become a strategic shareholder.
Tran Ngoc Quang, General Director of Vinaconex–ITC, said: “With our ability and ambition, we will make great efforts to implement this project. We tried our best to bring investors fully completed project infrastructure system, especially the services and entertainment areas. It will make Vietnam’s tourism develop.”
VNN
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