Danang, Vietnam is transforming itself into the "Singapore of Vietnam" by investing heavily in new infrastructure, attracting foreign investment, and establishing a transparent and business-friendly local government. The city has spent $5.9 billion in the last 5 years on projects like a new airport terminal, city hall, and overpass. It aims to double its population to 2 million by 2020. Former chairman Nguyen Ba Thanh helped build Danang's reputation for transparency before his death, and was likened to Lee Kuan Yew for his efforts to modernize the city.

1. A30 I WORLD
Vietnamese city
transforming itself
into `Singapore'
Danang boasts a transparent, efficient
govt and business-friendly policies
HANOI - Mr Chuck Palazzo was
18 when he took his first trip out-
side New York City . He went to
Danang, Vietnam, courtesy of the
US Marines .
Forty-five years later, Mr Palaz-
zo is back, as a tech entrepreneur
contributing to the planned con-
struction of one of South-east
Asia's most modern cities .
"It is ambitious," said Mr Palaz-
zo. "They are welcoming of for-
eigners. In terms of process and
getting things done, Danang is by
far much more friendly to busi-
nesses than Ho Chi Minh City."
In Danang, you might be forgiv-
en for wondering how the war end-
ed. Tourists sun themselves on
the white sand in front of the Hy-
att Regency resort, a few blocks
from the Greg Norman-designed
Danang Golf Club. Outside a
supermarket which sells French
baguettes and bottles of Bordeaux
wine, traffic directed by IBM soft-
ware flows towards the airport
and the Coca-Cola factory.
Decades after the city revolved
around the US military airbases,
Danang is recasting itself as the
Singapore of Vietnam, touting a
transparent and efficient govern-
ment. A building boom has trans-
formed the landscape into a bud-
ding metropolis, ranked at or near
the top of the Vietnam Provincial
Competitiveness Index for good
governance and business-friendly
policies since 2007 .
The city government spent
US$4.5 billion (S$5 .9 billion) on
infrastructure projects in the past
five years, a surge from US$1 .7 bil-
lion in the previous five years,
according to Danang's statistics
office.
About US$60 million went into
a new airport terminal, US$88 mil-
lion on the striking, sail-shaped
city hall and US$93 million on a
three-level overpass.
Unlike the larger Hanoi and Ho
Chi Minh City, which have much
older infrastructure, Danang has
the advantage of starting afresh,
said Mr Tan Jee Toon, IBM's
Hanoi-based Vietnam general di-
rector. "The government is very
forward-looking ."
The city's masterplan calls for
its population to double to two
million by 2020, said Mr Huynh
Lien Phuong, vice-director of the
Danang Investment Promotion
Centre. But the government is not
interested in growth at any price .
"Danang doesn't blindly com-
pete to attract everything," said
Dr Edmund Malesky, an associate
professor of political economy at
Duke University in Durham,
North Carolina .
The city has turned away
projects, such as a textile dye
plant and a shipbuilding opera-
tion, said Mr Huynh Van Thanh,
vice-director of Danang's Depart-
THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015
ment of Planning and Investment .
Instead, Danang's future can
be seen in the 1,130ha Danang
High Tech Park, now under con-
struction. The plans include hous-
ing for 10,000 tech workers, and
international schools .
The man.credited with building
Danang's reputation for transpar-
ency is Mr Nguyen Ba Thanh. The
controversial former chairman of
the Danang People's Committee,
THE STRAITS TIMES
who died in February, was often
likened to Singapore's Mr Lee
Kuan Yew who died a month
later, said Dr Alexander Vuving, a
security analyst at the Asia-Pacif-
ic Centre for Security Studies in
Hawaii .
"He was committed to turning
Danang into a modern city with
an effective bureaucracy," Dr Vuv-
ing said .
BLOOMBERG