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Dutch government to help with $1bn flood plan for Vietnamese high-tech city

The Dutch government is to help Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) devise an urban development plan and a flood prevention strategy for Thu Duc City, a 210-sq-km hub for high-tech industries that is due to come into being in March.

According to Tran Phuoc Anh, acting director of the city’s Foreign Department, the sustainable flood prevention project for Thu Duc City would have a total investment of more than $1bn, and would be implemented as a public-private project with the participation of the Dutch government.

Le Hoa Binh, deputy chair of HCMC, said he hoped the Netherlands would help create a city that was  "sustainable and well adapted to climate change".

Elizabeth Akkerman, the Dutch ambassador to Vietnam, said her government would help HCMC and Thu Duc City with advanced construction technologies.

Thu Duc will be based on advanced industries such as autonomous manufacturing, and will include the university precinct in Thu Duc as well as a new-build urban area and financial centre on the Thu Thiem Peninsula.

Thu Duc is the most elevated area in HCMC, but still suffers from seasonal flooding, and its residents suffer from inundation of streets and even houses every time there is heavy rain or a high tide.

In May 2019, HCMC sent a delegation to the Netherlands to study its urban development and flood management methods, and a number of memorandums of understanding were subsequently signed, including a $1bn anti-flooding project in Thu Duc City.

Image: The layout of the Thu Duc innovation zone (Sasaki and enCity)

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