Under the agreement, Mapletree plans to invest US$400 million to develop an integrated business park inside the 4,200-hectare Binh Duong Integrated Township partly owned by Becamex.

The new industrial estate, to bear a tech-savvy name of Mapletree Business City @ Binh Duong, will be the company’s maiden integrated business park development in Vietnam. The park will be positioned as a world-class modern business park catering to various industries in the high tech, software and product development, research and development, and value-added manufacturing.

"It will be a world class modern business park with a comprehensively planned environment for business. Development will be in phases from 2009," said Edmund Cheng, chairman of Mapletree Investments, at the signing ceremony.

"We believe that companies operating in this business park will enjoy the premium range of amenities available and also benefit from its location in the Binh Duong new township" in close proximity with HCMC and established industrial parks like VSIP I and VSIP II, he said.

With the influx of foreign investments into Vietnam and its move up the economic ladder, many foreign companies are setting up operations in the country.

Therefore, "We expect the demand for more and better quality business space to take on an increasing significance in the years to come," he said, adding the development of the project will bring Mapletree expertise in creating vibrant integrated mixed-use developments for ’Work, Live and Play’ to Vietnam.

On the occasion, Mapletree also celebrated the topping out of the first building of its 68-hectare logistics park located within the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park2, or VSIP II.

When the US$110-million park is completed, it will offer about 420,000 square meters of modern warehousing spaces designed for modern logistics operations. It will house both non-bonded as well as bonded warehouses in a free trade zone.

Currently the first two phases of the Mapletree Logistics Park are under construction, but the immediate phase of about 65,000 square meters of non-bonded warehousing space is almost ready. The next phase, which will comprise about 65,000 square meters of bonded spaces within an exclusive free trade zone area will be ready by early next year.

At the topping-out event in Mapletree Logistics Park Mapletree also signed letters of intent with six logistics customers for space in the forthcoming park, Cheng said. He added that his company’s first logistics facility in Vietnam - Mapletree Logistics Center, which opened in early 2007 in VSIP I, was fully occupied soon after its completion.

With these two projects, Mapletree has scaled up its business to cover logistics, industrial and commercial real estate in Vietnam, and will raise Mapletree’s total investments in Vietnam to about US$700 million when all its projects are completed.

"Mapletree sees a lot of potential in Binh Duong Province. With its strategic location close to major seaports, airports and HCMC, we are keen to partner with the province in its next phase of growth," said Cheng.