In the 1960s, Saigon was known as the Oriental pearl \u2013 a city that was more splendid than Hong Kong, and Bangkok, Seoul or Singapore couldn\u2019t compare to it then. But the war and historical ups and downs slowed down its development, which was further impaired heavily in the centrally-planning red tape regime. By the time the city was untied to rebuild its strength, it was left far behind by those once-unmatchable landmarks. So much so that many believed that it could never catch up. The reason was simple: those cities would never wait for us to catch up. They would always steps ahead us.<\/p>\n
But \u201chow to catch up with other regional countries\u201d is a wrong approach that will wear us out. If you go to Phu My Hung area to observe and experience its development for the past 20 year plus, you\u2019ll see a different approach to development.<\/p>\n
That Phu My Hung is now widely recognized at the best place for living in Saigon is an undisputable fact. As Doctor Tran Du Lich, former Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Economic Institute, put it, when talking about the success of Phu My Hung, \u201cseeing is believing,\u201d and all statistics would be redundant.<\/p>\n
An urban area, in general, contains high-rise apartment buildings, villas and terrace house, and cultural buildings, schools, supermarkets, restaurants, financial institutes and other facilities, which all are located harmoniously, and natural elements are reserved as much as possible. All comparisons are lame, of course, but I believe that living in Phu My Hung is as good as in Singapore, Hong Kong or any other modern urban area in the world. I don\u2019t know if other modern cities in the world can reserve nature better, but I\u2019m sure Phu My Hung does that better than any other cities in Viet Nam. I once saw a bee hive on the balcony of an apartment here. I know this species of honey bee is extremely allergic to polluted air and would desert the hive immediately if they could sense cigarette smokes or chemicals in the air.<\/p>\n
If one takes a motorbike ride from the city downtown to Nguyen Van Linh St via Kenh Te Bridge, the first thing he or she can feel is a change in temperature. The 10-lane, 17.8km-long Nguyen Van Linh St was built on a swampland that spanned District Nha Be, District 8 and District Binh Chanh. This street plays an important role to the developing of not only Phu My Hung but also the entire Saigon South area and the South Eastern Strategic Economic Zone.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s interesting is that while the swampland no longer existed, it still leave its marks right in the middle of the road \u2013 ponds of lotus and other wild plants. These green zones \u2013 rarely elsewhere in the city \u2013 helped cool the environment of Phu My Hung. I don\u2019t know if these \u201cwild\u201d segments will be replaced with new developments later, but I can be sure that the temperature of the area will rise without them.<\/p>\n
Phu My Hung has been in existence for just 20 years, it certainly wasn\u2019t part of the original \u201cOriental Pearl.\u201d Neither was District 7, formerly known as Nha Be, where Phu My Hung is located, part of the original Saigon. Prior to the 1990s, this area of alkali soil was sparsely populated, the residents poor and land prices dirt-cheap \u2013 so much so that if one had been given a piece of land here, they wouldn\u2019t have wanted to receive it.<\/p>\n
But a world-class urban area was developed on that same forsaken land within just 20 years. Phu My Hung has become a convincing model of development and urbanization in Vietnam. Obviously, the value that Phu My Hung Development Company Ltd. has brought to the area is not just shown within Phu My Hung itself. This urban area and the Nguyen Van Linh St. help prices of land in neighboring areas to increase by hundreds of times. As a result many local residents were lifted out of poverty and the city can enjoy countless benefits which not everyone can see and \u2013 among those who could see \u2013 can recognize.<\/p>\n
On Dec. 30, 2003, on the 10th anniversary of Phu My Hung Urban Area, Dr. Tran Du Lich, Director of the HCMC Economics Institute, said one of the best things that Phu My Hung had demonstrated is how to transform an area which had been considered wasteland. The area was like a \u201ccanvas [luckily] got to be used by a talented painter,\u201d he said. Also on this occasion, Vo Tran Chi, a former Party Chief of HCMC, said the impact created by Phu My Hung urban area helped the entire South Saigon area \u201cdevelop rapidly and change every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phu My Hung Urban Area is not just the achievement of a business \u2013 the joint venture of Taiwanese-based Central Trading & Development Group, which was headed by late President Lawrence S. Ting, and Tan Thuan Industrial Development Company. It is also an outstanding achievement in the 40-year development of the modern Ho Chi Minh City. It is the brainchild of a generation of insightful leaders and investors. To understand its importance, one has to look at the great difficulties the country was going through in the late 1980s-early 1990s. The reform had begun but the centrally-planning red-tape system still took hold of the economy. The country had barely opened to investors.<\/p>\n
(First installment. To be continued) – Thanh Nien News<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the 1960s, Saigon was known as the Oriental pearl \u2013 a city that was more splendid than Hong Kong, and Bangkok, Seoul or Singapore couldn\u2019t compare to it then. But the war and historical ups and downs slowed down its development, which was further impaired heavily in the centrally-planning red tape regime. By the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n