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QUANG NINH IN FOCUS
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the center of Halong Marina. We com-
pleted the procedures and documenta-
tion for handing over the land to the
provincial government recently and the
construction of the first government of-
fice buildings has already begun.
The development and opening of
many new hotels, large restaurants,
commercial buildings and tourist at-
tractions are providing many job oppor-
tunities for the locals. Halong Marina
has provided an alternative hospital-
ity job market to the once traditional
mining job market. This has helped to
increase the standard and quality of life
for the locals.
Lastly, in terms of “play”, with
the opening of the first internation-
al standard cinema by CGV, plus the
Marine Plaza, the Night Seafood Mar-
ket, a large indoor water puppet the-
atre, Little Vietnam, the Marina Bay
Beach Market, Swan Lake Water Sports
Park, the Bowling Centre and a large
Internet café, you will never get bored
at Halong Marina.
Large scale attractions are open-
ing at a rate of one per month. Halong
Marina not only provides a place for
entertainment for the locals, but also
gives tourists a reason to extend their
stay in Halong Bay. Soon, two days here
will not be enough to fully enjoy and
experience what Halong Bay can offer.
Halong Bay is known as a tourist des-
tination; do you think Halong Marina
can develop into a residential and
commercial zone?
Where tourists go and the hospital-
ity industry develops, supporting com-
mercial businesses will be developed,
followed by residential housing as the
workers and employees of these hotels,
tourist attractions need a place to stay.
Halong Marina was never planned
to be simply a tourist destination, it is
meant to be a model township where
people can live, work and play all in one
town. The tourism activities just add
colour and life to the town, that’s all.
Halong Marina has its own
character. It’s is going to be city that
never sleeps.
How is the project fairing?
I would say we are doing pretty
well as we have completed and handed
over the Green Bay Sea View apart-
ments and begun operation of Halong
Marine Plaza. Also, the Swan Lake Wa-
ter Sports Park and the Marina Bay man
made beach market are also open. All
this happened from 2012 to now, a
period during which most other devel-
opers either closed down or stopped
their projects altogether. So, compared
to them, we did well.
Currently, there are 13 individual
real estate projects developing, exclud-
ing those that are done by our partner
investors. At this pace, I would say Ha-
long Marina is one of the fastest mov-
ing township projects in North Vietnam.
Sales of new properties have been
successful, while leasing of commer-
cial space has also been progressing
well. To give an example, we launched
40 shop-houses at around VND4 billion
per unit and they were snapped up
within three weeks. Marine Plaza, with
a total NLA of 40,000m2, is also at 70
per cent occupancy.
How are BIM and Syrena Vietnam
Investment
and
Development
JSC (Syrena Vietnam) working
together to develop the Halong
Marina project?
Syrena Vietnam Investment and
Development JSC (Syrena Vietnam) is
the Real Estate Developing arm of BIM
group. While pursuing real estate pro-
jects, the two entities do deals with
each other at arm’s length. BIM group
invests and funds Syrena Vietnam’s real
estate ventures in Halong Marina and
the BOD of BIM does expect profitability
and transparency.
BIM Group, being the project own-
er of Halong Marina, regards Syrena Vi-
etnam as just another sub-investor and
developer and expects the same pru-
dence and performance as it does with
any subsidiaries or business partners.
Syrena Vietnam has to continuous-
ly show its business and development
abilities in Halong Marina to obtain the
trust and confidence from BIM Group to
keep its leadership role in the develop-
ment and progress of Halong Marina.