Ciputra Group to build satellite city in Hanoi

Ciputra Group to build satellite city in Hanoi

Hanoi (DPA): A 2.5-billion-dollar satellite city project for the Vietnamese capital Hanoi has moved closer to reality after winning the key support of senior Vietnamese leaders, government officials and businessmen said in a news report yesteday.

The city, to be built over an area of 400 hectares, is an undertaking of the Ciputra Group, an Indonesian developer, which has built nine cities in its home country.

If approved, it would be the biggest single foreign investment project in the country and would contain residential, office, commercial and recreational facilities.

Senior companies officials met this week with Communist Party chief Do Moui, and Deputy Prime Minister Tran Duc Luong and Ministry of Construction officials.

The party chief "welcomed" the venture and said such a "project would play a major role in the socio-economic development of Vietnam", the official English-language Vietnam News said Friday.

Company officials said they expected to submit a formal proposal by the end of October and hoped to get licensed by the end of the year.

"Hopefully within this year we can get licensed, so next year we can get moving," a Ciputra official said.

Political backing is typically lined up before the formal application is submitted to the State Committee for Cooperation and Investment (SCCI), the body that approves foreign investment, in projects of this sort.

With at least one other satellite city proposal for Hanoi under consideration Vietnamese planners are looking to alleviate a severe housing shortage for Vietnamese and foreigners.

They also want to relieve the intense population pressure in Hanoi's Ancient Quarter, where an estimated 90,000 people live.