Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) is promoting a new city development in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam, in collaboration with domestic construction and financial companies. This large-scale project aims to develop residential and commercial facilities for 100,000 residents, with a total project cost of 5.87 trillion won.
On the 27th, LH submitted an investment proposal to Bac Ninh Province and plans to recruit domestic investors. The new city development project in Bac Ninh, for which LH aims to obtain business rights, is also the location where President Lee Jae-myung noted during his recent state visit to Vietnam that he would actively support cooperation in the Bac Ninh new city project.
According to the development industry on the 28th, LH submitted an investment proposal for District 1 of the Southeast New City to the Bac Ninh authorities on the 27th. The Southeast New City is being developed on an area of 8.1 million square meters, located 18 kilometers northeast of Hanoi. The business site includes Binh Duong, Phuong Lieu, and Ninh Hoa in Bac Ninh Province. Bac Ninh Province plans to establish residential, commercial, sports, and educational facilities for about 100,000 people, dividing the project into three districts. An LH official said, "We submitted the investment proposal for District 1 bidding, and if the proposal is approved, we plan to participate in the subsequent bidding."
The investment proposal submitted by LH aims to obtain investment policy approval (IPA) from Bac Ninh Province. Only those who receive IPA will be eligible to participate in the official bidding for the project. Bac Ninh Province is expected to receive bids early next year in order to select a business operator.
Previously, LH signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for cooperation in developing the Southeast New City with Bac Ninh Province last July and also signed preliminary agreements with 24 domestic corporations and institutions for a public-private consultative body for the Southeast New City in November. They have been working hard to obtain business rights in this area for a long time. During the summit held on the 11th, when the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam visited Korea, President Lee Jae-myung also stated, "I will actively support cooperation in the Bac Ninh new city project." LH will hold an event on the 28th at the Samjeong Hotel in Gangnam, Seoul, to gather corporations, construction companies, and financial institutions that wish to invest and carry out this project together.
Meanwhile, Korean corporations have participated in new city development projects in Vietnam in the past. Daewoo E&C has been developing the Hanoi Star Lake City project in the area near West Lake, located 5 kilometers northwest of Hanoi, on a land area of 1,866,000 square meters, and the project is currently in the final stages.
In November of last year, a consortium including LH and Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (KIND) established the Hung Yen Clean Industrial Complex, located 36 kilometers southeast of Hanoi in Hung Yen Province. This facility, comprising 1,431,000 square meters (about 430,000 pyeong), was created for Korean corporations entering Vietnam. Other projects developed by domestic corporations include 'GS Metro City Nya Be' (GS Engineering and Construction) in the Nya Be area of Ho Chi Minh City and the 'Kien Giang New City' (Daewoo E&C) in Thai Binh Province, Vietnam.
Professor Kim Jin-yu from the Department of Urban Transportation Engineering at Kyonggi University said, "Vietnam has seen significant entry from domestic corporations, and construction companies have played a major role in urban development and architecture in the past, so perceptions of Korea are positive." He added, "In particular, there is a high level of trust from the Vietnamese authorities towards public corporations like LH that have extensive experience in new city development, and it is expected that they will actively seek to entrust new city development projects to them."
Lee Eun-hyung, a research fellow at the Korea Construction Policy Research Institute, stated, "It is significant for domestic corporations to develop new cities in the growing Vietnam," adding, "However, while contracting construction works may not pose any issues, if the projects require paying land usage fees to the authorities, corporations must carefully examine the business conditions and feasibility presented by Vietnam and make careful decisions about investment and development."