Hanoi to okay Lotte Mall West Lake operation extension until 2060

Hanoi is set to approve an extension for the Lotte Mall West Lake complex's operation from 2046 to 2060.

"Municipal agencies will complete relevant procedures, including reports to the Prime Minister," said Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Dinh Tien Dung while responding to an extension request from Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin at a meeting in the capital city last Friday.

An official grand opening was held the same day for the $643 million complex.

The municipal Party leader also called on Lotte to participate in developing Hanoi in line with the plan for building two sub-cities – the northern one in particular, that would merge the districts of Dong Anh, Me Linh, and Soc Son into a smart city.

The southern sub-city will focus on technology and education-training, with Hanoi planning to relocate major universities to this area and the central government assigning the municipality the task of managing the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park.

Noting that the current occupation rate at the 1,586-hectare hi-tech park was just 30%, Dung urged South Korean businesses to invest in the facility.

The Lotte executive said the extension granted to the complex would help it grow in line with Hanoi’s development target. He also said Lotte was willing to invest more in Vietnam.

Lotte Shopping, a distribution unit under South Korean conglomerate Lotte, recorded a revenue of KRW190 billion ($144.2 million) from its Vietnam operations in the first half of this year.

This included KRW10 billion ($7.6 million) from the department store segment, down 1.4% year-on-year. The figure accounted for 0.6% of Lotte Shopping’s global revenue of KRW1,618 billion ($1.2 billion) from the segment.

In the hypermarket sector, Lotte Shopping’s revenue in Vietnam rose 16% year-on-year to KRW180 billion ($136.6 million), making up 6.3% of the firm’s global figure of KRW2,869 billion ($2.2 billion).