Construction crews got as far as the first floor of what was to be
Saigon Residence, a high-end apartment building in the center of Ho Chi
Minh City. All that remains today of the abandoned project are piles of
moldy bricks, rusting steel rods and a small team of security guards who
have transformed the cement foundation into a parking lot for
motorcycles.
In Vietnam’s major cities, a once-booming property market has come
crashing down. Hundreds of abandoned construction sites are the most
obvious signs of a sickly economy.
A senior Vietnamese Communist Party official, speaking in the ornate
drawing room of a French colonial building, compared the country’s
economic problems to the market crash 15 years ago that flattened many
economies in Asia.
“I can say this is the same as the crisis in Thailand in 1997,” said Hua
Ngoc Thuan, the vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh
City, the city’s top executive body. “Property investors pushed the
prices so high. They bought for speculation — not for use.”
Vietnam’s economic problems appear less severe than those of the 1997
financial crisis — the economy is still growing, albeit relatively
anemically, at a rate of about 4 percent — but the country’s list of
problems continues to grow.
The arrest this week of Nguyen Duc Kien, one of Vietnam’s wealthiest
businessmen, set off a 4.8 percent plunge in the country’s stock market
index Tuesday, the biggest drop in four years. The charges against Mr.
Kien are vague. The state news media said he was accused of illegal
business activity.
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