The detailed tourism plans for Phu Quoc Island off southern Kien Giang Province will be ready in October, which will then facilitate the development of tourism projects there, a provincial official said.

Dang Cong Huan, head of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, told the Daily last week that "the job to make detailed schemes of the scale 1/500 for Truong Beach, Sao Beach and Khem Beach is now 50% complete," and these final plans will be brought out in September.

The provincial government has hired consultants to make a land-use scheme for Truong Beach, linking up all projects on the 1,100 hectares of the whole area because several projects had been approved and land allocated to investors before hand. The scheme will serve as guidelines for both State agencies and investors to develop projects in good harmony.

Sao Beach and Khem Beach as a whole will also have a common land-use scheme, and consultants have been hired to make the scheme of the 1/500 scale, Huan said on the sidelines of a conference here on attracting investment into tourism property projects.

"The area (of Sao and Khem beaches) will be reserved for developing five-star standard facilities," he said, adding all the schemes for the island will be completed in October this year.

To ready itself for an anticipated influx of investors into the hospitality industry on the island, the provincial government is also accelerating progress on several key infrastructure projects, he said at the Vietnam Tourism Property Opportunities Conference and Exhibition at HCMC's New World Saigon Hotel.

Provincial authorities are seeking approval from the central Government for permission to choose some more contractors for key infrastructure projects, which include the north-south trunk road and the island's circumference road currently under progress. The province also prefers the investment form of BOT (build-operate-transfer) for a 53km power line linking the province's inland town of Rach Gia to Phu Quoc Island.

"We want all investors to know about the process of developing these key infrastructure projects to facilitate their investment plans there," Huan said.

Duong To International Airport as the most important infrastructure project there is also seeing smooth progress, and site clearance is 80% complete now. Construction will start work on this airport in September for opening in 2011, with total investment of VND4tril.

The Southern province has also planned ways for receiving a big number of tourists to Phu Quoc now that the international airport is still under construction, one of which being to increase air flight frequency at daytime. More tourist boats will also be put into services in the coming time to carry passengers from the mainland, he said.

The central Government has also agreed in principle to the establishment of a joint venture air service company to fly tourists there," he revealed.

(Source: SGT)