Hung Yen
Vietnam's prime minister and US President Donald Trump's son Eric held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday for a $1.5 billion (Sh193 billion) luxury residential development with three 18-hole golf courses outside Hanoi.
The US president's Trump Organisation family business and its local partners received approval for the project just last week from the Communist authorities in Vietnam, which is separately negotiating over tariffs with Washington.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said Eric Trump’s visit "motivated us to expedite this project", and urged local authorities to provide maximum support and facilitate the completion of the 990 hectare (2,446 acre) resort.
Eric Trump is also set to meet Ho Chi Minh City officials on Thursday to explore plans for a possible skyscraper in Vietnam's southern business hub, according to an internal schedule seen by Reuters.
Projects to be developed in Vietnam will be "the envy of all of Asia and of the entire world", said Eric Trump, who is a senior vice president of the Trump Organization. He praised its Vietnamese partner, real estate firm Kinhbac City KBC.HM, and promised to visit the country "very often".
The collaboration, whose terms are not public, "will focus on developing 5-star hotels, championship-style golf courses, and luxurious residential estates and unparalleled amenities in Vietnam," the consortium said in a statement in October.
Vietnam was meant to be hit with some of the highest US tariff rates of any country at 46 percent when President Trump announced his "Liberation Day" plan for global tariffs on April 2. Trump has since postponed the tariffs for 90 days.
Vietnamese trade negotiators are in Washington to discuss compromises. Offers made so far include lowering tariffs and non-tariff barriers, intensifying the fight against trade frauds and counterfeiting, and providing favourable conditions to Starlink, owned by Trump's close ally Elon Musk, to roll out satellite internet services in Vietnam.
Organisers said the project in Hung Yen, a few kilometres south of Hanoi along the Red River, swiftly obtained approvals from local authorities.
The Trump Organisation has luxury golf projects, completed or under development, in countries from Indonesia to the Middle East.
