Northeastern Quang Ninh Province has decided to set up a steering board to accelerate investment procedures for a two-billion- USD hi-tech park and urban township.

The complex would cover 16,000 hectares of Quang Yen, Uong Bi Districts and Ha Long city.

It would consist of a green industrial park, residential suburb, free-trade areas, sports facilities, convention centre, schools, a university and entertainment facilities.

Chairman of the Quang Ninh provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Doc was elected head of the newly established board while several directors of the province’s departments were assigned specific tasks in the project.

In June, the province allowed Thailand's Amata Group and its Vietnamese partner, Tuan Chau Au Lac Group, to hold a feasibility study of the project's first phase on an area of 500 ha in Quang Yen District at a cost of 1.5-2 billion USD.

This phase is expected to start in December. The first plant would go into operation next year.

Doc said that if Amata's project was built in Quang Ninh, it would help attract more foreign investment to the province.

He added that they considered Amata as a long term investor and they also wanted it to consider Quang Ninh as a strategic investment destination.

This would be Amata's largest project in Vietnam and the province's largest industrial park and urban area.

It also showed the group's ambition to expand investment in Vietnam through the development of large-scale industrial and urban property projects.

Quang Ninh Province has emerged as an attractive destination for foreign investors. Foreign direct investment commitment in the province last year was about 396 million USD, 15 times higher than that of 2011.

The province is now the third largest economic hub in northern Vietnam, after Hanoi and Hai Phong. It is also home of the largest coal mine in the country and the Cai Lan deep-seaport.-VNA