The HCMC People’s Committee has been asked to revoke the software park’s license because work on the project is progressing too slowly, Thu Thiem officials said on Wednesday (22 July 2009).

 

The city government has planned Thu Thiem new urban area in District 2, across the Saigon River from HCMC’s downtown area, as a center of finance, trade and high-tech services with an estimated population of 130,000 people.

 

The management board in charge of investment and construction at Thu Thiem told the HCMC People’s Committee the project, licensed in June last year, was not delivering on the commitments made in its application for the investment license.

 

The Thu Thiem Software Park, on around 16 hectares of land at the center Thu Thiem, is being developed by TA Associates Vietnam, a joint venture between Singapore’s TA Associates International and Saigon Telecommunication and Technologies Corp.

 

Work on the project started in July last year and was scheduled for completion in 2012.

 

The park was to be a center for the development and outsourcing of software, circuits and chips. The complex was to include shops, offices, training centers and apartments.

 

The project, which the developer said would be the largest software center in Vietnam, was expected to provide jobs for 70,000 laborers and generate $6.5 billion a year in revenue. It was the second software project licensed at Thu Thiem, after the $610 million Vija Brain Park, backed by Vietnam-Japan PowerSource Joint Stock Corporation.