VietNamNet Bridge – The first phase of a US$400 million hi-tech medical project in HCM City's Binh Tan District was slated for completion in 2010 or 2011 but only a fraction of the mega-project has been finished.

According to the investment licence granted in 2008, the first stage of the Binh Tan Hi-Tech Healthcare Park at 532A Kinh Duong Vuong Street in Binh Tri Dong B Ward should have been completed in 2010.

By that time, a 250-bed modern general hospital and auxiliary facilities on par with regional and international hospitals should have been finished.

But so far only the foundations of the 40ha project has been completed and columns are being built after a host of surveys have been conducted.

The investor, Hoa Lam-Shangri-La Healthcare Co. Ltd., a joint-venture between Viet Nam-based Hoa Lam Services Co. Ltd. and Singapore-based Shangri-La Healthcare Investment Pte. Ltd., said the first stage could only be finished by 2012 at the earliest, according to local media reports.

The company's board chair, Tran Thi Lam, said the project was proceeding well and as planned.

With construction starting in October 2008, the project is designed to become the first healthcare cluster in Southeast Asia that will provide comprehensive healthcare services to patients and medical professionals using integrated technologies.

The complex will comprise functional areas, a 25-storey building as accommodation areas for patients' relatives, and a retail medical equipment centre, among others. It was designed with a total of 1,700 beds capable of handling 45,000 in-patients and 30,000 out-patients a year.

The investment certificate shows that the project was to be carried out in five phases between 2008 and 2018, with the first phase being commissioned in 2010-2011.

But the current progress coupled with obstacles in administrative procedures and the global economic crisis have hindered the investor from putting the park into service as scheduled.

To ensure that the project will proceed as planned, the city's People's Committee chairman Le Hoang Quan recently visited the site to check out the project's progress.

He said the public healthcare project should proceed on schedule to meet the public demand for medical examination and treatment.

Quan has asked that a city-level task force be set up to regularly inspect the project's construction pace and tackle difficulties facing the investor.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News