The joint venture partners said Sunday that the smart city will span 272 hectares in the northern district of Dong Anh, located halfway between Noi Bai International Airport and the city center.

Project construction is set to start next year with 7,000 apartments and houses. When complete, the smart city will adopt 5G, face recognition, blockchain and other advanced technologies.

The project will consist of five phases. In the first phase, the joint venture will build a residential area that up to 25,000 people can occupy in 2022.

Office buildings and commercial facilities will be constructed in the second phase. All five phases are set to be finished in 2028.

The city will tap into a metro line planned between downtown Hanoi and the Noi Bai airport.

Sumitomo operates three industrial parks in the northern Vietnam which host about 190 companies, most of which are Japanese.

BRG is a major operator of golf courses and hotels in Vietnam. It is also involved in the finance and retail sectors.

Around 20,000 tons of equipment still sit in storage and cannot be installed at the Long Phu 1 thermal power plant, a 1,200 MW project being developed in Long Phu District, Soc Trang Province, said a report by the State Capital Management Committee (SCMC).

SCMC represents the state’s ownership at the wholly state-owned PetroVietnam (PVN), the investor of Long Phu 1.

The report attributed the inability of the project’s EPC contractor, Russian power engineering company Power Machines, to import enough parts to finish the job to a U.S. embargo imposed in January 2018.

Preservation of the equipment and unused reinforced steel in storage is a major concern, the report noted.

In June, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung had instructed PVN to coordinate with the EPC contractor and take measures ensuring that equipment does not rust or get damaged.

In January 2018, the US Department of Treasury announced an extended list of Russian individuals and companies subject to sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis, which included Power Machines.

Till now, PVN has not been able to determine the feasible progress of Long Phu 1 project because the Russian firm had not been able to resolve ongoing difficulties.

“The embargo makes it very difficult for the project to complete and meet investment efficiency requirements,” the SCMC report said.

Meanwhile, PVN has proposed that the project’s investment capital be increased by VND11.6 trillion ($500 million) to VND41.2 trillion ($1.78 billion), and that the government allows PVN to raise its owners’ equity contribution ratio to the project to above 30 percent.

According to SCMC, Long Phu 1 was approved by PVN in 2010 with a total investment of about VND29.58 trillion ($1.28 billion), of which 30 percent would come from PVN’s equity capital and the remaining 70 percent from commercial loans.

Although the decision to change the capital ultimately rests with the PVN management board, it needs to be able to explain and prove that the increase in capital will result in additional financial and socio-economic efficiency for the project.

Since PVN’s equity is currently limited, the corporation needs to clearly determine its ability to invest from its own equity, the report said.

Long Phu 1 is a key project under the government’s 2011-2020 National Power Master Plan, with a vision for 2030.

The coal-fired power plant is part of the Long Phu Power Centre, which comprises three coal-fired power facility projects Long Phu 1, 2 and 3 with a combined capacity of 4,400 MW and other ancillary technical infrastructure.

The Long Phu 1 and 2 power plants will feature two 600 MW units each, while the Long Phu 3 will feature two 1,000 MW units.

Work on the Long Phu 1 site began in June 2015, and the two units were originally scheduled for completion in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Vietnam needs $150 billion by 2030 to develop its energy sector as electricity demand in its rapidly growing economy is set to grow by 8 percent a year for the next decade, according to the World Bank.

The company will invest over JPY14 billion ($130 million) in the Thang Long Industrial Park II in the northern province of Hung Yen, 30 kilometers to the east of Hanoi, expanding its size by 52 percent to 526 hectares, it said in a statement Friday.

With the company having reached an agreement with Hung Yen authorities, construction is set to start in 2021 and sales of lots in 2022. When finished, the park will be one of the largest Japanese-run industrial parks in the country.

Sumitomo also plans to spend another JPY5 billion ($46 million) to double the size of its Thang Long Industrial Park III to 213 hectares next year, the Nikkei Asian Review reported.

The park, covering 104 hectares, is located in Vinh Phuc Province, 54 kilometers to the north of Hanoi and was completed last November.

Sumitomo originally planned to sell out the first phase lots by 2022. But due to unanticipated demand, the lots are likely be sold out by 2021, the Nikkei report said.

These are two of three industrial parks in Vietnam that Sumitomo has been operating since 1997. The three industrial parks currently host about 190 companies, 90 percent of which are Japanese manufacturers.

The expansion announcement by Sumitomo comes on the heels of reports that Japanese firms are seeking to expand their opertions in Vietnam.

A survey released by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) released earlier this year showed that 70 percent of Japanese firms in Vietnam were considering expanding their business here, the highest ratio among six Asian countries polled.

As of August 20, Japan was the second largest foreign investor in Vietnam with a total registered capital of $58.2 billion, behind South Korea at $64.9 billion.

Vertu Vietnam, a local unit of the phone maker, said genuine Vertu phones will once again be sold in Vietnam, first from an District 1 outlet in Ho Chi Minh City in October, then a Hanoi outlet the following month.

Vertu luxury cell phones had been sold in Vietnam since 2006 by electronics distributor FPT Trading, formerly known as FPT Telecom Products Distribution Co., Ltd., through three outlets in Vietnam. In late 2017, the stores closed after Vertu ceased production in the U.K.

The company had filed for bankruptcy in its home country, having racked up debts of some £138 million, but its business was still thriving in Vietnam.

A representative of FPT Trading said that when Vertu’s U.K. factory was shut down, customers in Vietnam were still ordering its super-luxury phones.

Vertu will now distribute its phones through Vertu Vietnam, a Hanoi headquartered company established in May 2019.

Before Vertu announced its return to Vietnam, traders had observed that demand for Vertu handsets in the country had never died down.

“Normally, we rarely see Vertu phones, but in events or places with lots of rich people, you can find 80-90 percent of them using them. For them, the latest technology is not a top priority. They use Vertu because of the phone’s anti-tapping protection features, the brand name and the fact it is crafted from luxury materials,” said Nguyen Phi Dung, a dealer in luxury hand-carried Vertu phones.

Models that cost between VND100–150 million ($4,300 – $6,450) used to be the most popular, but customers have even bought handsets costing VND500 million to over VND1 billion ($21,500 – $43,000), Dung added.

Vertu was founded by Finnish phone-maker Nokia in 1998, but changed hands several times later. In 2012, it was sold to Swedish investment corporation EQT; and in 2015 to Hong-Kong based investment fund Godin Holdings.

In March 2017, Vertu was sold to Baferton Ltd., owned by Turkish businessman Hakan Uzan. However, just four months later, Uzan had to close Vertu’s U.K. factories, having failed to save it from bankruptcy.

However, in October last year, Vertu made an unexpected return to China with a new Aster P, priced at $5,167 for black and white models, and $14,146 for its yellow model.

Five other Vietnamese firms in Forbes Asia’s latest listing of 200 top-performing Asia-Pacific listed companies with revenues of above $1 billion include food giant Masan Group; electronics retail giant Mobile World; Vietnam’s biggest brewer Sabeco; the country’s biggest dairy company Vinamilk, and Techcombank, one of the nation’s biggest private banks by assets.

The country’s biggest private conglomerate Vingroup topped the list of Vietnamese names in terms of market cap, at $17 billion. It was followed by Vinamilk and Sabeco, with $9.07 billion and $7.73 billion respectively, Forbes Asia said.

Vingroup ranked first in the Vietnamese list in terms of revenue, at $5.3 billion, followed by Mobile World at $3.76 billion, and Vietjet Air at $2.33 billion. Vietjet Air has surpassed flag carrier Vietnam Airlines to become the country’s biggest airline with 46 percent share of the country’s rapidly expanding air travel market, Forbes Asia said.

Top in 2018 net profits were Vinamilk, Techcombank, and Vietjet, with $444 million, $368 million, and $232 million respectively.

The seven companies emerged from a candidate pool of 3,200 listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region with $1 billion or more in revenue in their latest financial year.

Other global names featured in the list included China’s multinational e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba, South Korean multinational conglomerate SK Group, and Chinese multinational investment corporation Tencent, each being included in the list’s top 3 in terms of market value, revenue or profit.

The Best Over A Billion list is based on metrics such as profitability, revenue, debt to equity ratios, projected growth in the next one or two years, connections to Forbes Asia’s rich individuals lists, and some other five-year business performance metrics, Forbes Asia said.

The deal to buy 100 percent of Mekong Wind Pte. Ltd. (Mekong Wind) is still subject to customary closing conditions, but is expected to be sealed in the fourth quarter of this year.

Mekong Wind, previously controlled by Singapore-based Armstrong Southeast Asia Clean Energy Fund, owns 99.99 percent of Dam Nai Wind Power JSC, which in turn owns and operates a 39.4-megawatt (MW) onshore wind power facility in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan.

According to AboitizPower, NinhThuan is among the most attractive sites for wind energy in Vietnam.

“Dam Nai Wind is one of the first wind power projects in Vietnam to have been successfully brought online, with commercial operations having commenced in late 2017,” it said in an online statement.

“We are excited for this opportunity not only to expand beyond the Philippines, but to also bring our experience in the power generation sector, especially in the renewable energy space, to Vietnam,” Emmanuel Rubio, AboitizPower Chief Operating Officer, said.

As of 2018, Vietnam had 189.2 MW in installed capacity at its wind farms, according to the Vietnam Renewable Energy Report 2018 conducted by market research firm FiinGroup.

Vietnam aims to raise this number to 800 MW, or 0.8 percent of national electricity production by 2020, according to the government’s National Power Development Master Plan for the 2011- 2020 period, with a vision for 2030.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has submitted this conclusion to the Ministry of Transport after an appraisal of the plan to establish Vietravel Airlines, deputy head of CAAV Vo Huy Cuong told VnExpress Thursday.

With Vietravel Airlines, the tour operator plans to provide charter flights for its own customers travelling to tourist destinations. The airline will operate 3 aircraft by 2020 and 8 by 2024, according to Vietravel’s proposal.

According to CAAV, the planned growth of Vietravel Airlines’ fleet is in line with demand from Vietnam’s other aircraft operators as well as overall national aviation plans.

Vietravel Airlines’ model to operate a charter fleet serving its own customers should be encouraged, as no other enterprise in Vietnam has this model, CAAV said in its report. Currently, around 30 travel companies in the world, including TNT Vacations (U.S.) and Nord Wind (Russia), operate their own aircraft, the report noted.

However, CAAV also warned that there are potential difficulties in Vietravel choosing secondary airports in Vietnam for its network, because tourists often come from central locations such as Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang.

In the event its planned charter flights end up being inefficient, Vietravel Airlines will likely be forced to operate and park overnight at major airports such as Noi Bai (Hanoi), Tan Son Nhat (HCMC) and Da Nang airports, putting further strain on an already overloaded infrastructure.

Vietravel needs to develop flexible flight plans if it wants to operate at these main airports, as the company will have difficulty booking slots as a new market entrant into the market, the CAAV report cautioned.

However, it also said that Vietravel’s proposal to headquarter its airline in Phu Bai Airport, central Hue Town, is in line with national infrastructure development plans, which envisages an upgrade to the airport between 2020 and 2030, with additional landing slots and parking space.

Vietravel already organizes charter flights with partners. In the last two years it has been operating around 300 flights a year, both domestic and international.

Vietnam currently has 6 airlines: Vietnam Airlines, budget carriers Vietjet Air and Jetstar Pacific, the Vietnam Air Services Company or VASCO, Bamboo Airways, and newly-licensed Vietstar Airlines, a military-run company.

Last year, the aviation industry served some 50 million passengers, up 10.1 percent from 2017.