Real estate developer Vingroup started work on the construction of the 30 trillion VND (1.42 billion USD) Vinhomes Tan Cang urban complex, in Binh Thanh district of Ho Chi Minh City on July 26.

The complex on a 43ha area spreading along Sai Gon River, billed as a miniature green city, will be home to a chain of apartment and office towers, upscale villas, retail spaces and other service facilities. In particular, it is expected to house a 81-storey skyscraper, the highest in Vietnam. It once inaugurated by 2017.

Vingroup Vice President Nguyen Viet Quang said this is the group’s first urban complex in Ho Chi Minh City, marking its expansion to the southern real estate market.

The villas together with a school and an international general hospital in the complex will be completed next year, while the entire urban complex will be inaugurated in 2017.

The same day, Vingroup started the construction of a general hospital in Phu Quoc island district, the southern province of Kien Giang.

Between now and October, the group will begin the building of three more hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang (the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa) and Ha Long (the northern province of Quang Ninh), as part of Vingroup’s strategy to expand its Vinmec-branded medical care system to 10 facilities across the country.

Beyond that, the group will also open its Vinmec medical university in the northern province of Hung Yen in late 2015.

Vingroup is the leading private sector real estate and tourism business in Vietnam with such brand names as Vincom (high-end shopping malls), Vinhomes (residential properties), Vinpearl (tourism and recreation facilities) and Vinmec (hospitals).-VNA