Vietnamese island takeover

HAI PHONG  Vu Yen Island, off the northern Vietnamese city of Hai Phong, will be turned into an ecotourism destination with entertainment and second home residential complexes under a megaproject worth USD872.76 million.
Tuoi Tre News reported the Vu Yen eco-park project broke ground on the island last Sunday, witnessed by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai and representatives from the developer, Vingroup.
The 870-hectare project covers almost the entire Vu Yen Island where three rivers, Cam, Ruot Lon and Bach Dang, meet.
Vingroup deputy chairman, Nguyen Viet Quang, was quoted saying that the complex will follow an ecotourism model, consisting of an international-level 36-hole golf course, eco-villas, an entertainment-shopping-cuisine complex, and an eco-park.
inside no 4A 1.5-km cable car system will connect the ecotourism hub with the mainland of Hai Phong, around 100 km east of Hanoi. The golf course is expected to lure high-spend tourists from around Asia to the island.
How it will comfortably adopt an ecotourism model remains to be seen. It will likely face considerable scrutiny from critics of megaprojects that are often splashed with a green sheen to silence opposition.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place nearly two weeks after the project was given the green light by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung 30 June, the report said.
The Vu Yen project is scheduled for completion in 2020.
Hai Phong is the third largest city of Vietnam and northern Vietnam’s most important seaport with its deep-water anchorage and large maritime facilities.

sourced:ttrweekly.com