$50 million project picked up after 10 years of lying waste

Photo: tuoitre.vn

In December 2003, the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) authorised Hong Thai Construction Consultant Joint Stock Company (JSC) located in Bien Hoa city and Safekeeping Investment Trust Company to found Hong Thai S.I.T Joint Venture Company to start construction of the building complex on a total area of 160,000 square metres in Nghi Huong commune, Cua Lo town, Nghe An province.

Following the MPI authorisation, the Central Nghe An Provincial People’s Committee carried out site clearance of a 169,429 square metre area to accommodate the project.

However, in November 2006, the MPI officially revoked the Hong Thai’s investment certificate because the investor had overstepped its authorised boundaries by constructing 28 villas more compared to the planned 100. Furthermore, during the construction process, the foreign developer failed to transfer total registered capital required to implement the project, leading to serious budgetary tensions. Subsequently, the investors behind Hong Thai have announced their withdrawal from the project without assuming any responsibility.

Following Hong Thai’s withdrawal, other firms, namely Vietnam G5 JSC and Son Ha Art JSC, expressed their interest to pick up the project.

Accordingly, these firms would invest VND70 billion ($3.2 million) in the first phase and VND668 billion ($30.8 million) in the second phase to complete the project. There were also plans to rent additional area to deploy the Cha Rong-Me Tien project. However, the project never came to fruition.

Kim Lien Commerce and Tourism JSC had also planned to take over the unfinished project. According to Tuoi Tre news, on June 6, 2009, Central Nghe An Provincial People’s Committee has agreed in principle to let Kim Lien JSC study the project.

However, the company mistakenly announced that the Central Nghe An Provincial People’s Committee had provided authorisation for Kim Lien JSC to become the investor of the project. As a result eleven people contributed capital and lost a total VND73 billion ($3.3 million).

At the end of October 2014, Central Nghe An provincial People’s Committee has allowed Bao Khanh Hamico Commercial Investment JSC to make investments into the project.

Accordingly, Bao Khanh Hamico will deploy the project with a total capital of VND1.05 trillion ($48.4 million), including its available capital of VND224 billion ($10.3 million) and VND826 billion ($38.1 million) of contributed capital and loans.

Previously, Bao Khanh Hamico inked a deal with Hong Thai S.I.T to buy their stake in the project.

According to the new plan of Bao Khanh Hamico, the project will cover an area of 159,158 square metres and consists of two phases. The first has started in the fourth quarter of 2014 and will last till the fourth quarter of 2018. The second is from the first quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2023.