An educational and residential facility called the Viet Nam International University Township will be built in Cu Chi District under a memorandum of understanding signed yesterday by Berjaya Land Berhad of Malaysia and the Ho Chi Minh City North-West Metropolitan Area Authority.
The township will cover 884 hectares of the Tay Bac (northwest) urban area about 30 kilometers from the city center.
It will comprise a university campus, residential precincts, a civic center with offices, commercial buildings, hotels and convention halls, a large park and administrative buildings.
The MOU signing was witnessed by city chairman Le Hoang Quan and acting Malaysian consul general Zainul Akmar Ahmad.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Chairman Quan described the project as being “of great significance in contributing to high-level human resources development for the city”.
Mr. Quan said he expected the investor to start operations quickly so that the township project would be in place soon in order to “bring high-level university and modern vitality to the city”.
The HCMC People’s Committee will submit the project to the Prime Minister promptly and ask the relevant agencies to “create favorable conditions for the project to be implemented in early 2008”, he added.
The city chairman said the township’s design should bear traditional Vietnamese characteristics yet look modern at the same time.
The city will invite the world’s top universities to get involved in the teaching side of things once the project is completed, he said.
In response, Berjaya’s chief executive said the Malaysian corporation took great pride in the fact that the township would be a desirable and choice destination and would set a new benchmark for township development in HCMC.
