VietNamNet Bridge – Construction began yesterday on a major information technology project, the Viet Nam-Japan Tri Thuc Park (VIJA Brain Park), the second of its kind in HCM City.

Unlike Quang Trung, the other major IT park in HCM City, which focuses on human resources research and training, VIJA Park will focus on business and IT application activities.

The park is expected to draw investment from major information technology companies and will also help train the city’s IT employees.

It is one of many major projects in the Thu Thiem new urban area attracting foreign direct investment, according to Nguyen Anh Tuan, acting head of Thu Thiem New Urban Area Authority.

The mega-project includes the 18-storey, 4,000sq.m Park Gate building, which costs around $40 million and is expected to be completed by June 2011.

Licensed on January 30, the VIJA Brain Park is expected to house one foreign IT multinational by 2011 and to attract four to five other foreign IT companies, as well as three to four local IT companies, from 2017 onwards.

The IT park will accommodate some 100 software companies and provide office buildings and houses for rent, training for highly skilled workers, and production and processing of software and chips.

The park, the first hi-tech project in the new urban area, will recruit 35,000 engineers and programmers as well as 10,000 employees in support or related fields.

Unlike Quang Trung, the other major IT park in HCM City, which focuses on human resources research and training, VIJA Park will focus on business and IT application activities, according to Paul Lam, a representative of the VIJA Brain Park’s investor.

“Quang Trung Software Park will conduct research and produce software while VIJA Brain Park will apply software to daily life,” he said.

VIJA Brain Park aims to bring in annual revenue of $100 million by 2011 and $1.678 billion by 2017, with yearly growth of 60 per cent.

VIJA PowerSource, a joint venture of Kyokuto Construction Co. and Kobekara VIJA Brain Park, specialises in training IT human resources and is committed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a group of “green” construction standards developed in the US and now used internationally.

(Source: Viet Nam News)