Le Kim Huong, director of the southern province’s Planning and Investment Department, said the developer of the Winvest tourism-amusement complex had received the nod to enlarge the project’s capital from $300 million now to $4.1 billion.

Eight new projects, including two large urban development ones, are set to be licensed. The $200-million, 154,000sq.m. Vietstar commercial-housing complex will come up in Ward 12, Vung Tau Town.

Huong said construction of the new projects would speed up soon after investors get the licences.

She said some Government policies to be unveiled this year would help pay compensation for land and speed up capital disbursement by investors.

Terence Park, managing director of A-Jung Engineering &Construction Co, which is developing a new urban area in Vung Tau, has been quoted as saying the property market would thrive by 2011 since housing demand is on the rise.

SP Setia Berhad, the Malaysian developer of the $600 million EcoLake urban area in Binh Duong Province near HCM City, is optimistic about the prospects in the next two years.

Lu Thanh Phong, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Planning and Investment, said things were going well at many large FDI projects.

Berjaya, the developer of the proposed Viet Nam Financial Centre in HCM City, has urged municipal authorities to speed up land clearance for the $930 million project.