Hanoi’s mega smart city set to kick-off construction in December

The BRG-Sumitomo joint venture and Japanese consultancy unit Nikken Sekkei on October 12 held a working session with the Hanoi People’s Committee to report on the implementation of the Nhat Tan-Noi Bai smart city project and listen to instructive comments from the city’s administration to soon start work on the project.

The investors expect that the construction of the $4.2 billion project could be kicked off this December if they receive the project approval and the land on time.

Earlier, joining the entourage of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to visit Japan, chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung and BRG chairwoman Nguyen Thi Nga held a working session with Sumitomo Group’s chairman Kuniharu Nakamura and CEO Masayuki Hyodo at the Japanese industrial giant’s headquarters in Tokyo.

At the meeting, Chung lauded these groups’ investment plans in Hanoi and stressed that the smart city project has brought Japan into the pole position among foreign investors in Vietnam.

In the upcoming time, Hanoi will try its best to ensure the most favourable conditions in administrative procedures, land acquisition, as well as infrastructure development, paving the way for the joint venture to deploy the project without a hitch.

In May 2018, a Vietnamese-Japanese consortium consisting of four Vietnamese enterprises led by BRG and Sumitomo had submitted a proposal to building a smart city to the Hanoi People’s Committee.

The consortium proposed establishing five companies to execute five component projects, which are scheduled to be kicked off this year and be completed in 2030.

The smart city project is set to span 272 hectares in Hanoi’s outlying district of Dong Anh, connecting with Hanoi city centre via the Nhat Tan-Noi Bai axis and will cost around $4.2 billion in total investment value.

In the first phase, the Sumitomo-BRG joint venture will pour over $1 billion into facilities on an area of 73 hectares.

According to BRG’s chairwoman Tran Thi Nga, once completed, the smart city will become a landmark development in Hanoi’s gateway, driving urban growth in the northern Red River area, creating numerous jobs and propelling the city’s socioeconomic development.

Earlier, the co-operation agreement between the Hanoi’s People’s Committee, BRG Group, and Sumitomo Corporation to develop the smart city project was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc during his official visit to Japan in June 2017.