GS Engineering & Construction is seeking approval from authorities to transfer land use right of a 1.8-hectare plot in HCMC’s District 10 to a local firm to pool money for the Tan Son Nhat-Binh Loi-Outer Ring Road project.
GS E&C chairman Huh Myung-Soo made the proposal in a meeting with HCMC chairman Le Hoang Quan on Tuesday, saying it wanted to transfer the land plot and use the money for the Ring Road project.
The city government, said Chairman Le Hoang Quan, did not object to the proposal, but said the two sides would have to wait for the final say from the central Government.
However, Quan stressed that GS E&C must ensure that after being transferred the land plot would be used in the purpose as pledged.
An expert from the city’s Department of Planning and Investment said that GS E&C has met with financial problems over the past few years due to the global crisis and forex fluctuation between South Korean won and Vietnam dong.
In late 2007, the city granted land use right of five land plots for GS E&C so that the company would develop the ring road project stretching 13.6 kilometers with six to 12 lanes.
However, the company had suspended a project to develop an elevated road along the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal last November due to financial problems, the expert told the Daily on Tuesday.
“The Korean company has to transfer the valuable land plot to finish the Tan Son Nhat-Binh Loi-Outer Ring Road project so as to maintain its prestige before the Vietnamese Government,” the expert added.
The US$340-million ring road project is the first foreign-invested infrastructure project under the build-transfer (BT) form, so many problems have yet to be solved due to lack of regulations,” Quan said.
The five land plots the city handed over to GS E&C in 2007 are two with a combined area of 4.42 hectares in District 2’s Thao Dien Ward, a four-hectare plot on Thu Thiem peninsula, one in District 10 and one in District 9.
GS Engineering & Construction is seeking approval from authorities to transfer land use right of a 1.8-hectare plot in HCMC’s District 10 to a local firm to pool money for the Tan Son Nhat-Binh Loi-Outer Ring Road project.
