Global Casino BOOM

I have found two articles about plans to build casinos in Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island. Both articles throw around some very big numbers in terms of investment. The first article is I believe to be from early 2008, and the second article is from March 2008

First Article

The Southern province of Kien Giang has received green light from the central government to develop casinos on the tourist island of Phu Quoc, the province’s chair said.
Bui Ngoc Suong told the Daily that “the government has agreed in principle on the development of some casino projects on the island.” The government has also entrusted the Ministry of Planning and Investment to draw up a draft decree for the conditional business sector there.

“The decree will include all conditions for screening investors as well as the allowed scale of casinos on Phu Quoc,” the provincial chair said.

Suong said that once the decree take effect, Kien Giang Province will organise international bidding rounds to look for investors.

“Around 10 international investors are interested in developing casino projects on Phu Quoc,” he added.

Phu Quoc Island, nearly an hour’s flying time from HCM City, has a coastline of some 150 kilometres. It takes about an hour or so to fly from the 561-square-kilometer island to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore.

The central government has planned to develop Phu Quoc into an attractive tourist paradise to attract two to three million guests a year by 2020.

Last year, the provincial government started work on two major infrastructure projects namely An Thoi International Sea Port and Duong Dong -Cua Can trunk road.

The province expects to start work on Duong To International Airport costing 5 trillion dong late this year, which once in place will be a strong catalyst for investors in the hospitality industry.

Local and foreign investors have registered to develop 347 projects capitalised at 100 trillion dong on the island. While many projects have been approved in principle, only 14 projects have been licensed.

Source: Saigon Times Daily

Second Article

Investors wanting to develop casinos on Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang are asked to proceed with preparations, but the selection of investors will be delayed until the end of this year, a provincial official said.

Director of Kien Giang’s Department of Tourism Le Minh Hoang said that the provincial government had received several casino projects and was continuing to receive more new projects, but the selection would only take place late this year via an international bidding round.

“We expect the process to choose investors will finish late this year,” he told the Daily over the phone on Saturday. Investment in this business sphere is conditional and not many projects will be licensed, according to Hoang.

He said provincial authorities had submitted to the central government some conditions for screening investors, and one big test for those wanting to indulge themselves in this cash-rich industry is to have strong financial capacity.

The investors are considered eligible to build complexes of casinos and hotels and resorts if they have at least US$8.5 billion for each complex on the island, he said.

The casino and resort complex alone should require a total US$4.5 billion, while the chosen investor should spend around US$3 billion for developing a transport infrastructure system linking the Mekong Delta province of Can Tho to Kien Giang.

This project should be developed under the Build-Operate-Transfer and is seen as an extra condition. Furthermore, the selected investor should spend around US$1 billion more for developing infrastructure on Phu Quoc Island under BT or BOT forms, according to Hoang.

Despite such harsh conditions, several investors are showing keen interest in casino projects on Phu Quoc Island.

The US-based LIS, for example, has recently submitted dossiers to provincial authorities for developing a casino and resort complex worth US$4.5 billion.

It is unknown whether the potential investor can shoulder the financial burden of investing in infrastructure there, but the investor has said it would give US$150 million to the province as non-refundable capital for developing infrastructure facilities in the province if the project is licensed. Furthermore, the company agrees to earmark 10% of its annual profits for the province to develop public facilities.

Hoang said that the provincial government had forwarded a project by a U.S investor worth US$4.5 billion to the central government for consideration, but it is unclear whether this is the project by LIS.

“Casio is a conditional business sector so such projects must be submitted to the prime minister for consideration,” he said. He added that 600 to 1,000 hectares of land on the island will be reserved for developing such complexes.

Phu Quoc, nearly an hour’s flying time from HCM City, has a coastline of some 150 kilometres. It takes about an hour or so to fly from the 561square-kilometer island to some neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Singapore.

Tile central government has planned to develop the island into an attractive tourist paradise to attract two to three million tourists a year by 2020. The government has also agreed in principle to the development of casinos on the island.

Source: Intellasia.net