Dubai billionaires and billion-dollar promises
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Bitexco, a big Vietnamese real estate developer, has confirmed that Emaar Properties PJSC, of Emaar Group has officially withdrawn from the Binh Quoi – Thanh Da urban area project in HCMC. The group decided to join forces with Bitexco in a contract signed in 2015.
The Thanh Da – Binh Quoi urban area is an ambitious project of the two real estate developers which was initially planned to have investment capital of $1.3 billion. A huge amount of money was planned to pay for major infrastructure items of the project and compensate for site clearance.
According to Bitexco, Emaar decided to quit the project because it wanted investment incentives which went beyond the current legal framework. It also requested the exact costs for the compensation for site clearance, asked for land use fee remissions and asked for appropriate agencies’ commitments on the time to deliver cleared land to the investor. It said it would not develop the project unless the factors became clear.
Many real estate developers from Dubai have visited Vietnam to learn about investment opportunities and many committed to pour billions of dollars into projects. However, the projects have not been implemented.
Not only Emaar, but Dubai ICD, Sama Dubai, Magnum Group and Global Sphere all came to Vietnam with big promises. However, unlike Lotte and Keangnam from South Korea, Indochina Land from the US, Capitaland and Keppel Land from Singapore, all of which have built large construction works, the projects from Dubai remain on paper.
In 2003, Magnum Group started the construction of a $24 million resort in Son Tra Peninsula in the central city of Da Nang. However, the group later sold the project to Kingdom Hotel Investment.
In 2014, it was the group which initiated the Nui Truong Le ecological urban area project in cooperation with Dong A Real Estate Corporation. However, no further move has been taken.
In 2008, Sama Dubai, a big real estate developer, expressed its willingness to invest in Phu Yen province with a $250 billion offer. However, the investment is no longer mentioned.
In 2014, Dubai ICD, believed to have assets worth $120 billion, said it wanted to pour billions of dollars into Vietnam, especially Quang Ninh province.
In 2013, The Gulf Today reported that Global Sphere wanted to develop a super project called Wall Street Hanoi, worth $30 billion. However, it is only on paper.
