HANOI - Indochina
Capital Corporation, an American-owned regional merchant
bank, has announced it will team up with a French
private company to build a US$4.5 million (VND70.6
billion) resort on Con Dao island, 230 kilometers
from Ho Chi Minh City.
Indochina Capital's
director, Nguyen Quang Ninh, said that through the
partnership, it will build a 60-room, four-star resort
on a 12 hectare site.
A topographical and
geological survey is underway and a compensation plan is
being readied for the land use rights. The resort is
slated to break ground in November and will start
operations in June 2006.
"Con Dao has the
necessary qualities to become a tourist destination as
popular as Phan Thiet or Nha Trang," Nguyen said. "It is
one of the few places in Vietnam that has a clean and
intact natural environment with smooth sand beaches,
blue sea and rare dugongs, turtles, dolphins and orchids
found nowhere else in the country."
He said that
visitors to Con Dao would also enjoy the island's
national park, with its thousands of wild fauna and
flora species, forests, mangroves and coral reefs.
Aside from the recent launch of flights from Ho
Chi Minh City to Con Dao island by Vietnam
Airlines, Vasco, the country's third national airline,
has also announced an increase in its service between Ho
Chi Minh City and Con Dao from seven to 11 flights a
week.
Joining the development rush is Saigon
Tourist Holding Company, the country's largest tour and
hotel operator, who plans to invest $3.2 million
in adding 100 three-star rooms to its
26-room Saigon Con Dao Resort on the island.
The expansion of the resort is due to start next
month.
The Con Dao resort is one of the latest
ventures by Indochina, which has successfully developed
and advised a number of properties in Vietnam, including
the $40 million Furama Resort in Da Nang and
the $75 million Saigon Center in Ho Chi Minh City.
(Asia Pulse/VNA)
Aug 12, 2004
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