VietNamNet Bridge – The yachts worth tens of millions dong have appeared in Vietnam. In HCM City, a marina project with the consultation of foreign experts is about to kick off soon.

Owning yachts worth millions of dollars is now “in fashion” among millionaires. When a Vietnamese actress bought a yacht several years ago, it made headlines in Vietnam. However, this is now not a strange thing to Vietnamese people any more.

Having realized the great potential in Vietnam, some foreign brokers have arrived in Vietnam to exploit the market. Ruurd van Putten is one of them.

Once worked as a captain on a 25 meter sailboat, Ruurd has 10-year experiences in the yacht industry, and he is now a professional broker. Several years ago, he realized that “Vietnam has got ready for the appearance of luxury yachts”, he decided to set up a workshop which specializes in building big ships right in Vietnam. He plans to build three sailboats this year, including one for leasing in Nha Trang sea area, while the other two will be exported, before considering building yachts.

One of the well known yacht owners is Bui Nguyen The Vinh, who has King yacht worth 20 billion dong. This is the biggest in Vietnam yacht with composite-made cover, designed and built by the Ship Research and Manufacturing Institute. It has the length of 28 meters, the width of 7.5 meters and the height of 10 meters. The yacht has been used for business purpose–it carries travelers to islands and sea areas.

Like super car, a yacht is a kind of valuable asset. But unlike car, yachts’ owners do not fear that their yachts would devalue after a certain time. Therefore, it would be understandable why people spend millions of dollars to buy a yacht. They can take back the investment capital and make profits from leasing the yachts. In HCM City, at least two big yachts are being exploited this way.

Foreign yachts builders believe that in Vietnam, there is a group of clients, who are financially capable enough to buy the yachts with the length of 27.4 metres. However, the problem is that there are not many areas for the big size yachts to anchor.

The real estate developers of a housing project on an island in HCM City carried out a market survey, to find out information about the yachts and the sizes of the yachts which are expected to anchor in the project area. They believe that the local residents will own new yachts with the minimum size of 9 meters.

According to Economist journal, previously, the values of a yacht can be seen in the material facilities - sauna, mini cinema, and pads for helicopter landing. Nowadays, yacht designers have set up new criteria for luxurious yachts – the clean and green technologies which allow yachts to operate for a certain time without having to charge fuel. The yachts using green technologies need to use solar energy, electrical systems, steam turbines and lithium ion rechargeable battery.

There has been no research on the impacts of the yacht industry to the local economies in Vietnam. In Spain, when a yacht owner spends one euro at the marinas, he would also spend 7-9 euros on restaurant services, shopping, hotel and tourism.

In Vietnam, yachts are listed as the asset to serve high income earners; therefore, yachts bear the high luxury tax of 30 percent. The high tax rate proves to be a big barrier for those people who want to own yachts.

In Thailand, the government only applies the VAT of 7 percent in order to pave the way for yachts to help develop the tourism industry.

Source: SGTT