HUD Raising Urban People's Living Conditions with Prestigious Works

Housing and Urban Development Investment Corporation (HUD) has been established under Decision No.08/2000/QD-BXD dated June 2, 2000 by the Minister of Construction. Starting with small-scale construction works or those assigned by the State, HUD has so far acted as investors for new urban area development projects costing hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong on areas from tens to hundreds of hectares.

The Corporation mainly takes responsibility for developing new urban and residential areas, economic zones, concentrated industrial parks, and giving advice on the construction of houses and urban infrastructure works. To date, it has already carried out a wide range of projects in Hanoi, which has received good assessment from departments and levels, especially the Party committees and municipal government, helping to boost the capital's urban development.

The Corporation has undertaken some major projects including the general services area and houses at Linh Dam Lake providing city-dwellers with more than 340,000 sq.m for residence, and new urban areas of Dinh Cong, Hoang Mai (35 ha) offering an area of 297,500 sq.m for residential purposes. In addition to domestic investment projects, it has joined with Japan to invest in the two projects of high-class flats for hire named JANA in Hoang Mai district's Giap Bat ward and V-Tower in Voi Phuc in Cau Giay district, with combined investment capital of US$30 million. They are the two superior construction works at the southern and western gateways to Hanoi.

HUD has achieved high growth rate in many successive years. Its working capital has touched more than VND700 billion (US$44.6 million) from the initial figure of only VND2 billion (US$0.13 million) with a year-on-year increase in the budget contribution rate and profit. Over the past 15 years, HUD has made available an area of 791,000 sq.m for houses of all kinds. In 2004, it targets to provide 300,000 sq.m for residential purposes.

The expansion of uniform, modern new urban areas is a right track for the urban area development process in Vietnam. The projects undertaken by HUD have become a typical model with synchronous and advanced technical infrastructure. Of which, the sewage system is separate from the rain system, communication and electrical cable lines are underground, and water treatment stations are built to supply standard water for daily use. The Corporation also focuses on building social infrastructure works such as administrative offices, police posts, supermarkets and kindergartens.

The network of flower gardens, green tree parks and recreation areas has been given great investment so as to stir up fascination of the projects and create favourable conditions for people's lives. Notably, numerous large land lots among the projects built by HUD have been used for flower gardens and parks with a green tree density of 6 sq.m per head aimed at raising quality of life.

High-rise living quarters always cover a large proportion in the new urban area projects. The Corporation has built around 110 buildings between 9-17 floors or 800,000 sq.m for residence and nearly 8,000 flats. It also pays detailed attention to supervising and maintaining high-rise apartments and considers it one of the decisive factors for the success of high-rise buildings growth model. HUD manages to raise common awareness and a civilised lifestyle among urban residents. The quality of works and maintenance services together with a clean habitat and reasonable prices make apartments built by HUD appealing to people, helping to strengthen the prestige and trademark of the Corporation.

• Minh Nguyet