Lotte breaks ground on $900 mln Eco Smart City in HCMC

South Korea's Lotte Group broke ground Friday on its multi-function Eco Smart City in Ho Chi Minh City's Thu Thiem Peninsula.

The $900 million project will cover 50,000 square meters, comprising a shopping mall, a hotel, office buildings, serviced apartments and a residential complex.

It will include five underground floors and 60 above-ground ones, using smart technologies.

Group chairman Shin Dong Bin said the Lotte Eco Smart City marked the start of Lotte's investment expansion drive in Vietnam.

Lotte is eyeing several projects in the Southeast Asian country, including a trading center in Hanoi that can attract 10 million visitors a year, Shin Dong-bin said in a meeting with President Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Hanoi Wednesday.

The South Korean conglomerate also plans to invest in startups in Vietnam, bolstering the country’s startup ecosystem.

Lotte Group considers Vietnam its third- most important market after Korea and Japan. After entering Vietnam in 1996, the group has invested about VND40,000 billion ($1.7 billion) in the country and employed 20,000 people, Vietnamese government data shows.

The Lotte Group chairman’s visit to Vietnam this week indicates “how serious Korea’s fifth-largest business group is about doing business in the Southeast Asian nation, now that it is near the completion of its withdrawal from China,” the Korea Times reported.

In Hanoi's Ho Tay district, Lotte is expected to complete the construction of the Lotte Mall Hanoi project by 2023.

Vietnam is the first country Lotte Group chairman Shin Dong-bin visits after he was granted a special pardon by the government on August 15.