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"The late payment of land rentals to the Thu Thiem Township Authority was not the case".

The $1.2 billion Thu Thiem Software Park’s rough ride is concerning authorities.

The Thu Thiem Township Authority last week announced that it had given Thu Thiem Software Park’s developers one more chance to finalise the park’s development by the end of 2011.

The requirement was sent to the Thu Thiem Software Park’s developers last month asking if they would continue the delayed project.

Thu Thiem Software Park’s developers are Vietnam’s SaigonTel Joint Stock Company, a subsidiary of the Saigon Invest Group and the TA Associates International, a member of Taiwan-based Teco Group.

According to the developers’ plan, the park will be built on 15.9 hectares in the centre of the Thu Thiem township in Ho Chi Minh City and would become the biggest software park in Southeast Asia. This huge project will be carried out in three phases.

An authority source said it would recommend the Ho Chi Minh City Municipal People’s Committee withdraw the project if the investor did not respond whether it could get the project off the ground, by this year’s end.

In 2009, the authority once asked the Ho Chi Minh City Municipal People’s Committee to revoke the park’s licence due its indolent progress.

At that time, as an aftermath of the global financial crisis, the park’s developers delayed paying land rentals to the authority and did not make any progress of the project implementation as they promised in their investment certificate, according to the authority.

Dang Thanh Tam, chairman of Saigon Invest Group said that the global economic crisis had impacted on many foreign invested projects in Vietnam including the Thu Thiem Software Park.

However, Tam said the late payment of land rentals to the Thu Thiem Township Authority was not the case, as “a land rental agreement was not signed between Thu Thiem Software Park and the authority.”

Tam said the project developers would take the case to court if no solution was found.

Thu Thiem township is now home to four large-scale projects. Those are the 5.5 hectare Vietnam-Japan Park ($610.3 million), the 19.5ha Thu Thiem Software Park and two projects developed by the Deawon-Binh Khanh Joint Stock Company and the consortium of Vietracimex and Korean POS A.C. Limited Architectures & Consultants.

By Minh Thien