Ly Son Island, one of the highlights of Quang Ngai’s tourism industry (Photo: dankotravel.com)

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The real estatesector in the central province of Quang Ngai has strong potential to grow,thanks to its geographic attributes but still-low property prices that appealto investors.

Quang Ngai province is strategically located inthe central region and along the East-West economic corridor. It has convenienttransport infrastructure and easy links with neighbouring economic zones andneighbouring countries by road, air and waterway systems. Because of this, itsindustrial, tourism and marine economic sectors are expected to boom in thenext few years.

At present, the Dung Quat - Quang Ngai deep-waterport can receive ships of up to 100,000 tonnes, making it an important gatewayfor importing and exporting goods. In terms of industry, Quang Ngai’s Dung Quat economic zone has an area of over 45,000ha. It is one of the five coastaleconomic zones that have been prioritised by the Government to receiveinvestment in infrastructure and offer the strongest incentive schemes in Vietnamtoday.

By the end of the second quarter of 2018, Quang Ngai’s regional domestic product (GRDP) was estimated to rise 9.23 percent overthe same period last year. The industrial sector increased by 16.15 percent andservice sector grew by 7.14 percent.

In terms of tourism, total visitors to QuangNgai in 2017 reached 810,000, including 69,000 international visitors, equal to108 percent of the year’s target and representing a year-on-year increase of 12percent. Total tourism revenue reached 710 billion VND (30.4 million USD), up 10 percentfrom 2016.

In recent years, the province has made effortsto build a friendly investment environment with a series of policies andcredits to support various forms of investment. As a result, the amount ofinvestment capital in Quang Ngai in 2018 has reached impressive numbers. In thefirst and second quarter of 2018, the total new investment capital to thecentral province reached over 16.99 trillion VND (728 million USD), accounting for62.9 percent of the year’s plan, up 89.86 percent over the same period in 2017.

By May 2018, the province had 48 foreign directinvestment (FDI) and 485 locally-invested projects with total registeredcapital of more than 1.45 billion USD and nearly 227.92 trillion VND (about 9.77billion USD), respectively. 

With this potential and promising signs, QuangNgai is set for spectacular growth in the near future.

According Quang Ngai city’s plans for 2016 to2020, economic development will proceed in two basic directions: the urbaneconomy and the marine economy. The exploitation of marine and island areaswill become one of the city’s key economic sectors.

That orientation focuses on the province’s130km-long coastline, with beautiful beaches such as Binh Chau, My Khe and SaHuynh, as well as Ly Son island. The province also possesses many uniquecultural heritages and unique marine geographical features, which are a greatfoundation for the development of the city’s marine tourism economy.

To become a dynamic and friendly tourist city,Quang Ngai has concentrated its investment resources in urban planning. Itintends to expand the city towards the sea, upgrade the transportinfrastructure system. Some key strategic projects have been implemented, suchas the dam upstream of Tra Khuc River, the Cua Dai Bridge linking the centralcoastal provinces, the Da Nang–Quang Ngai Highway and the Hoang Sa and TruongSa routes along the banks of Tra River.

A number of key projects for tourism are also inthe works, such as the Van Tuong Ecotourism Area, Emerald Island project, AnhVan Ecological Resort project in My Khe beach area and the 150ha Central Parkproject in Tinh Khe commune.

Quang Ngai’s investments have created momentumfor the real estate market in the province with series of new projects mainlyon the two sides of the Tra Kuúc River. An area of 252ha along the river hasbeen the focus of detailed planning by the provincial People’s Committee.

Most of the land plots in this area have beenhanded over to investors for exploitation in accordance with the city’s plans.

Tran Xuan Thong, General Director of Dat Xanh Da Nang, said the real estate market in Quang Ngai is still in the early stages ofdevelopment and is far from its full potential, so real estate prices are muchlower than in the neighbouring cities of the central region.

“In the near future, the development of transportinfrastructure and a series of new projects, including the launch of QuangNgai–Da Nang Highway at the end of July 2018, will be the driving forces forQuang Ngai to become a major economic and tourist province of central Vietnam.This is also the lever for the breakthrough of the real estate market in QuangNgai,” Thong told the cafef.vn.

In terms of obstacles facing the provincial realestate sector, Nguyen Phong, Director of Quang Ngai province’s ConstructionDepartment, said the most difficult step is compensation and the land clearanceprocess. As the local people ask for land compensation equivalent to the marketprices, investors must reach agreements with residents before they can startthe projects.

“Quang Ngai province has been providing favourablepolicies to attract investors in order to develop the property sector as wellas enhance urban development overall. The province is ready to s🅷upportinvestors in planning and administrative procedures to boost the real estatesegment in the upc𝕴oming time,” Phong told Viet Nam News.-VNS/VNA