Urban developer Phu My Hung builds int’l school blocks without permission

Phu My Hung Development Corporation, a leading urban area developer in Vietnam, built two blocks at the Saigon South International School in 2015-2022 without permission, stated Ho Chi Minh City’s inspectors.

According to the findings announced by the municipal People’s Committee on Thursday, the southern HCMC new urban area construction investment management board and the District 7 People’s Committee had failed to promptly detect that Phu My Hung was building the school blocks covering 10,000 square meters without a construction license.The city’s Department of Construction also bore the responsibility for the affair.

"The management board is a unique model with decentralized administrative procedures under the prime minister's decision. Therefore, some procedures are carried out independently," said chief of the HCMC People's Committee Office, Dang Quoc Toan.

Regarding violations at the South Saigon International School, Toan said that because the school wanted to be ready for the 2023-2024 school year, it implemented construction and procedures in parallel.

"At the time of the inspection, the company had not completed the legal procedures, so it stopped construction and was fined. It did eventually complete procedures and is now abiding by the regulations," he added.

Phu My Hung was granted an investment license in 1993. It is a joint venture between Tan Thuan Industrial Promotion Company Limited (IPC) and Taiwan’s Phu My Hung Asia Holdings, formerly known as CT&D Group.

According to its investment license, Phu My Hung will develop five functional areas A, B, C, D, E spanning 600 hectares in total and 150 hectares of public land with infrastructure, which will be then transferred without compensation to the city to build public works.

Of the 150 hectares of public land, 110 hectares are located in Area A and 40 hectares are in Areas B, C, D, E.

Toan said Phu My Hung has handed over 53 out of 110 hectares of public land in Area A of the project to the city, while the remaining 57 hectares are still being used for public purposes. The enterprise said it will hand over the remaining area.

Planning schemes for Areas B, C, D, E have not yet been made due to incomplete site clearance compensation. To remove obstacles, HCMC has established an interdisciplinary working group chaired by the Department of Planning and Investment.

In response to the information on its violations, a Phu My Hung representative said that the management board on June 2, 2023 issued a construction permit for the project. On January 23, 2024, the HCMC Department of Construction announced the results of a test for acceptance of the project and the construction work has been put into operation.