Bogus financial centers in abundance in Hanoi

Bogus financial centers in abundance in Hanoi

Once described as the financial centers in Hanoi, which would turn Hanoi into a financial center of the country, but the big real estate projects have fallen into oblivion. A lot of finance and trade centers remain the deserted land areas.

Once upon a time, big tycoons rushed to build finance and trade centers to show off their wealthy situations and affirm their upper class in the society. More and more office building and trade centers were introduced.

In the areas of Tran Duy Hung and Cau Giay alone, investors reserved land for tens of projects. With a high number of projects, the areas were believed to become a big economic and financial center of Hanoi, which could be compared with London, Hong Kong or New York.

However, the economic crisis broke out unexpectedly, which brought big difficulties to the finance, securities and banking sectors. As a result, the multi-billion dollar projects have been left in suspension. Some of them have turned into grassplots; others have been re-leased to serve as football playing fields or car parks. Especially, some land plots have been used by the investors as the assets mortgaged at banks to acquire loans.

The sleeping giants

StarCity Center project of Ocean Group, expected to cover an area of five hectares once caught the special attention from the public, because it was located on a very advantageous position – Tran Duy Hung – Khuat Duy Tien crossroads.

Ocean Group, the investor kicked off the 12 trillion dong project in December 2011 already. However, no progress has been made so far.

The International Financial Tower (IFT) of Bao Viet group, which is not far from StarCity Center, is now in the same situation. IFT was designed to become a bustling finance center, the ideal place for financial institutions, banks and economic groups.

However, the project which was advertised to be a complex with 34 stories, trade areas, service areas and office buildings, has not been kicked off. For the time being, the IFT has become the street tea shop.

The projected 47-storey complex of trade center and office buildings on Pham Hung Road in Cau Giay district was initially planned to kick off in the first quarter of 2011 and complete in 2014l. However, the construction site now remains a deserted grassplot.

Kinh Bac Group, the investor who planned to develop the one billion dollar Lotus project, has leased the land to some people who have been using the land for the football field and car park.

Prior to that, Lotus project was registered by a Japanese investor – Riviera, which planned to pour 500 million dollars into the 15 storey building. However, the Japanese investor decided to give up and transfer the project to Vietnamese Kinh Bac Group.

Investors’ capability reconsidered

Tens of slowly implementing projects have been cited by the Hanoi People’s Committee. Explaining the slow implementation, the investors have said that they would not disburse money when the real estate market remains gloomy and the national economy is still full of difficulties.

However, experts have pointed out that the main reason behind this is the problematic investors’ capability.

Hanoi’s authorities have recently inspected the use of the 33 land plots with the total areas of 500,000 square meters, and found out that 19 land plots with the total area of 309,368 square meters have been left deserted. The city’s authorities then released a decision to take back the unused land plots, while having committed to take drastic measures to more effectively control the land fund.

vietnamnet