Chi tells me she has read that a new Nationality Law is being implemented that may affect us and allow Lousia to have ‘dual citizenship’. I’ve yet to find this story in any English language Vietnam sites. From a brief bit of research I have found that the Nationality Law (1998) has been under discussion this year by the National Assembly. Reported here on the 13th of October this year:

Regarding the bill on the revised Nationality Law, most of the council’s members agreed with the details of the bill in line with national interests. They made comments on various issues, including nationality principles, documents demonstrating Vietnamese citizenship, ways to deal with Vietnamese citizens with dual nationalities, responsibilities of relevant agencies, and other related issues.

I also discovered that there was an amended draft of the 1998 Nationality Law which was submitted to the government in March and to go in front of the National Assembly in May of 2008:

In their speeches, high-ranking Vietnamese officials said Vietnam will consider accepting two nationalities in 2008. At present, under Article 3 of the Nationality Law 1998, Vietnamese citizens only have one nationality – Vietnamese.

That sounds promising. This story also appeared in Thanh Nien entitled House to mull dual citizenship for expats, diaspora:

Under the draft law, foreigners eligible to take out Vietnamese citizenship would include those who:

- marry Vietnamese citizens or have Vietnamese parents or children;

- receive certificates or medals of merit from the State or the Government for their contribution to the country; and

- benefit Vietnam’s socio-economic development, science, national security or defense after they become Vietnamese citizens.

These categories of foreigners would be exempt from some Vietnamese citizenship criteria, such as being able to speak Vietnamese and residing in the country for at least five years.

Well, according to that, even I could be eligible for Vietnamese citizenship, being married to a Vietnamese citizen. I could possibly in a catagory of socio-economic development as well. How accurate was the content of that TN report? The practicalities if true would be enourmously beneficial for myself and many others with Vietnamese wives, husbands and children who currently stuck in the middle.

The means of sidestepping the Vietnamese Nationality Law has been a badly kept secret amongst Saigon British residents for a while (Case Study Two), however, some still get caught out (Case Study One).

Case Study One

A British friend who is married to a Vietnamese guy and who has been resident in Vietnam over ten years. Her daughter was born in Vietnam and raised and educated in Vietnam too. However, she was registered with the British embassy first, therefore cancelling any rights to having Vietnamese citizenshiop and passport. Therefore this six year old girl has had to spend her life in Vietnam on 6 month tourist visas. Messy.

Case Study Two

A British friend who has been in Vietnam since the late 80s, married to a Vietnamese lady and with two children. Registered their children as Vietnamese first. Later registered with the Brits who couldn’t give a stuff either way. Children travel in and out of Vietnam on their Vietnamese passports, elsewhere on their British passports. Better, but still messy.

Chi and I are really hoping to avoid any messy circumstances when it comes to our child’s nationality, and we want her to be able to live in the birthland of both her parents without any red tape issues popping into the equation.

Do you know anyone who has had a Vietnamese-British baby in the UK or other country that allows dual nationality? Or do you know if the draft amendments to the Nationality Laws have been passed?

Over in Phu My Hung, things have really gotten crazy. I am talking about the completion of the new highway which runs through the residential area, which must be at least four lanes each way. Roughly a year ago I took pictures of the area from around March last year which you can see here.

Comparing to today’s finished project:

It is hard to show the sheer ridiculousness of the new road system through pictures. Here you can see half of the highway running in front of skygarden apartments. It is quite simply a big ruddy mess. For the residents down here now who may wish to cross one side of PMH to the other, it now means negotiating 10 or 12 lanes of road, with of course no provisions set out for pedestrians. Really a couple of pedestrian foot bridges are desperately needed, and the fact that they didn’t incorporate these features when the highway was constructed is, for me, mind numbingly unintelligent — but also typical. The planning just looks so random and hurried - a shame.

This was taken a year ago. It is the Saigon Paragon.

And today:

Adjacent to the Paragon, the Saigon Convention center is now under construction, and looks like it will be a good modern space.

The Panorama, a riverside PMH apartment complex, one year ago:

Today - nearly ready.

Over on the highway linking D7 and D4 and beyond to D1, big plans are taking shape.

District 5 in the distance.

Plans for a Police University on the site :

Back into town, a bridge now connects Thu Thiem to Binh Thanh district, creating an alternative route onto Highway One (other than the Saigon Bridge) and meaning motorbikes no longer have to queue and wait for the ferry across the river. Rather than join in with backslapping of the local media over the opening of this bridge, I feel it put things rather in perspective about Vietnam. Despite the ‘incredible growth of 8% per year’, we can see that this most useful and basic of infrastructure is still just arriving. The city really does have awful links, especially in this D2/D7 area in the south and east of the city.

The new bridge:

The bridge arrives in Thu Thiem on a typically narrow thoroughfare so it is still no good for heavy traffic. It will eventually link up with the east/west highway currently being built along the canal through D5, into D1, through the tunnel under the river (of which I have heard very little recently) and then into Thu Thiem eventually arriving at H1 some 2/3kms beyond the Saigon bridge. I am hoping this will eventually mean the end of articulated lorries trundling down Ton Duc Thang, which I envisage as a semi-pedestriansed modern river front in the future. Really, the river should be more of a centerpiece, as it is in any city, and once the old ports further along it’s banks are cleared as they inevitably will be, we have potential for some nice outdoor restaurants/cafes lining the river. So much potential!

So in the old days, I’d finish working in PMH and drive over to D2 to play football - a minimum of 45 minutes. Not a million miles, but when you understand that it could actually be a journey of 15/20 minutes with the right infrastructure in place, you get frustrated. Apparently the bridge needed has had ‘contractual’ and ‘bureaucratic’ problems for many years. A very tired old story, one which represents the biggest obstacle to useful development — because friends, acres of high end apartments and extortionate office space is only useful to the few. However, by 2009, this new journey should be ready to test drive, finally giving a link between the developments in Phu My Hung (which are spreading east) and the developments and apartment blocks in Anh Phu, D2 (which are spreading west). With decent transport links it is likely the two areas will continue to grow together, and what with the government plans for the rest of D2 (Thu Thiem), we could see a new urban center on the other side of the river. I am hoping this will happen and the burden will be lifted on what will become known as the ‘old city’.

Now dominating the skyline of the city from many angles, the Saigon Pearl is nearly finished. In Binh Thanh district, it is right on the river and well placed - equidistance between the highway and the city center. The street it is built however, as residents of The Manor will attest to, floods horribly during the rains (which always makes me laugh as the slogan of the Manor is ‘The best address in Vietnam’). Here is the Pearl, the Manor in the background. You can see the villas/townhouses built below the towering apartment blocks.

And from Ton Duc Thang in D1.

And close up:

In the town center, Times Square on Nguyen has finally begun construction phase, as my friend Chris often tells (he lives basically on top of the site and often they work at night). Saigon Happiness Square, Nguyen Van Cu:

And back where we started, Sailing tower on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai / Pasteur.

I am, of course, just skimming the surface, but that’s a round up of what’s going up. Amidst all the madness, the traffic, the people dressed in orange who sweep the dust a further two feet up the road, all I can do is share the sentiments of the giant billboard awaiting arrivals leaving the fantastic new international terminal at Tan Son Nhat :

What I envisage for the city is a pedestrian area encompassing Nguyen Hue, Dong Khoi and Lam Son Square. I am no urban planner and maybe it’s too late to build the parking that would be necessary, but wouldn’t it be nice…..

It looks like we may be on the first step towards this, according to a column inch in Thanh Nien recently (this taken from their new printed English version.

One can only wonder how much truth there is in this article, and how long it will take to implement such a plan. The word used is ‘consider’, so they are still only thinking about it. Personally, I think it’s a great idea!

Now down onto Nguyen Thi Minh Khai and from Hai Ba Trung heading down towards District 5. In a very short space there are a number of tall buildings going up. This is one is between HBT and Pham Ngoc Thach. Forget the floundering cyclist, it’s the building on the billboard behind we are interested in….the Centec Tower.

A few meters down the road on the other side, before Pasteur, is the beginnings of the Pacific Tower.

And then just on the other side of Pasteur is the site of the ‘Sailing Tower’, which will have some kind of sailing boat look to it.

Further down, opposite Huyen Tran Cong Chua, is this interesting looking building.

Ex residents should recognise the next one, on the corner of Cach Mang Thang Tam and Nguyen Thi Minh Khai….it used to be an outdoor restaurant (the gray building, not the construction behind).

Over on Nguyen Van Cu we have ‘Saigon Happiness Square’ — shops, hotel, office etc

Now heading into D5, and the massive site that I thought was Saigon Happiness Square, but obviously it’s not….whatever it is, it’s huge and there are two or more projects going up there. It’s on 2/3 between Ly Thuong Kiet and Le Dai Hanh.

It seems that by 2009 we’re gonna have a hell of a lot more apartments, offices and shops ready to go!

As this article says:

When Phu My Hung company rolled out 40 new deluxe apartments, each worth around VND3 billion (US$187,000), in district 7’s Saigon South urban area last month, some 1,000 customers queued up to register despite the fact that prices had soared by 50 percent in the last few months.

From the same article:

Land sold by TS real estate company, also in Saigon South, fetched VND19 million ($1,187) per sq.m, up from VND12 million ($749) just two weeks ago.

Ha - up over $400 per sq.m in two weeks? What’s going on! I talked about all this land being developed in this post in which recent commenter Ching tells me that the whole area was bought by LG. Jesus.

Also in the last few days, Thanh Nien wrote this story which I brushed upon in The Final Word in ‘Saigon in 2020‘. Looks like my premonitions may partly become reality. They say:

Construction of the 19.7 km (12 mile) track linking Vietnam’s largest city and the neighboring province of Binh Duong, known as the Ben Thanh – Suoi Tien route, was expected to start later this year or early in 2008 and finish in 2013, city transport officials said.

Sadly, I will be waiting for any signs of said construction site, Canon at the ready.

Other News: The ‘N’ on my laptop keyboard has fallen off, exposing the plastic node beneath it, which is surprisingly hard to press. You have get it right on the top. Amazing how many words have N in them.

This pic must have been taken around 6 months ago.

Now it’s basically finished. These have to be the poshest apartments in all of Vietnam so far. They face the river and must have fantastic views. I heard $1800 - $2000 psqm.

I posted this in August 2006:

And now:

Down near the Waterfront, over the bridge, more new blocks are being finished off. This is one is called My Kiem (according to workers).

When you reach the end of the road down here, there is a small river. No matter, the bulldozers are already preparing the land on the other side, and the bridge is being built as we speak.

This is My Khanh, the end of the road just before the bridge.

I’m sure this area of PMH will become more popular. At some point, the new road will open making the buildings on the north side a little cut off from the rest of PMH.

In the near future we should see the completion of more high rise luxury apartments, shopping centers and hotels. The $265 million Kumho Asiana Plaza project finally resumed in October after being delayed for 10 years. It sits on the site that used to be Saigon Square, and is due to be completed in 2009. Saigon Happiness Square is a massive development underway that I mentioned before in D5. It’s costing its Taiwanese investors $468 million, containing offices, shopping and a hotel. Saigon’s tallest building is also under construction, and thanks to Urban Planet for the picture of what it may look like:

Eventually, the tunnel will be operational running under the river in the foreground of the picture. The government aims to use both sides of the river for more development. One day Ton Duc Thang will have no heavy traffic and will become another ‘Dong Khoi’. What I envisage for the city is a pedestrian area encompassing Nguyen Hue, Dong Khoi and Lam Son Square. I am no urban planner and maybe it’s too late to build the parking that would be necessary, but wouldn’t it be nice…..

On top of this newly shaped city center, the construction of the Saigon Metro system should finally have begun. As the widely read International Railway Journal stated in September 2004:

FEASIBILITY studies for two metro lines totaling 21km in Vietnam’s largest city, Ho Chi Minh City, are due to be submitted to the government in October. If all goes well, construction could start by the end of this year and the metro could open by 2008.

Let’s just say that was a ‘little optimistic’. The most recent updates are looking at a 2020 completion date, with 2007 now once again set aside for consulting from foreign companies, as this from Asia Development Bank explains.

The new International Airport at Long Thanh is scheduled to have phase 1 finished by 2010, as this Wikipedia page says, with further development planned into 2015 and beyond. This will allegedly include a high speed road link to the site 40kms from the city.

The most recent big project to be announced is the construction of a high speed rail link from HCMC to Hanoi. This was reported across the world including Auntie. As the article says, it’ll cut the journey from a mind boggling 2 days to a much more reasonable 10 hours, and it will only cost $33 billion, and the government claims that it can be completed in 6 years (the contractors want 9, I remember reading). This could become the jewel in the crown of the ASEAN rail network, which is seeking to complete by 2015. As this article from the People’s Daily explains, the missing links are mainly in Cambodia — once finished, the railway will be linked from Hanoi (and therefore into China and beyond to the Trans Siberian) to Singapore.

Back in Vietnam and heading north, Hanoi’s proposed Light Rail System, or Tram system, or whatever you want to call it, is under construction……or it was. A recent report from the BBC’s correspondent in Hanoi finished with him gravely assessing the inactivity at a deserted construction site. Due for completion : 2010.

According to all the dates we are given, these projects will be completed by 2020 - in 13 years time. If it’s true, better get your backpacks on and get over here, because horrible roads and never ending train journeys will disappear, replaced with gleaming highways and sleek Japanese style bullet trains gliding effortlessly through the paddy fields. My guess is that there’s no need to panic just yet…even all this come 2020 seems like a dream at the moment.

So, let’s get started.

This post may be the most riveting on TFW yet, it’s entirely about rubble…..

The astonishing rate of growth in Vietnam is astonishing. I just said astonishing twice because I’m so astonished by it. The old District One is slowly being demolished and replaced with sleek glass office buildings and expensive apartment blocks. Diamond Plaza is quaking in it’s boots at the number of new shopping centers planned or under construction. It is easy to get ahead of oneself when thinking of HCMC’s develpoment but remember, DP is the biggest shopping center in town — PATHETIC! I was just in the KLCC, Kuala Lumpar, you need a map and some flares in that place — they have a 4 floor Parksons inside the department store. There’s also Times Square and the Mid Valley Mega Mall (over 4 million sq ft) which are even bigger (they have search and rescue teams in these ones). Anyway, I digress.

It’s gotten to the stage where I picture old decrepid D1 buildings as guilty school children loitering at the back of the classroom hoping the teacher doesn’t notice the smashed window. Their days are numbered. Here are some of the sites that are currently ready for huge new projects and once completed will really have changed the entire face of D1. For those who have recently been in Vietnam and are familiar with ‘Saigon Sqaure’, take a look at it now! A Japanese corporation is developing here.

This site is just off of Ham Nghi, on the corner of Ho Tung Mau. Huge plot levelled for I don’t know what.

The following is a thick, juicy medium rare slice of land bordering Dong Khoi on one side and Nguyen Hue on t’other. If you can read, look at the words etched into the green fence to discover the future of this particular rubble pile.

Next we have the site of the ‘Saigon Tower’ project, set to be the tallest building in Vietnam if I’m not mistaken. It’s down at the end of Ham Nghi and will overlook the tunnel currently being constructed under the Saigon River (which will thankfully get rid of the horredendous juggonaut traffic that currently has to trundle down Ton Duc Thang). The picture sums it up for me. In the foreground is a women sifting through the trash looking for whatever she can use to earn a few thousand dong. In the background slum like corrugated iron houses somehow still survive sandwiched in HCMC’s hotel and banking district. It’s difficult to see, but behind those small gates is a huge water filled pit soon to be drained and filled with concrete

for the foundations of a building that will eventually look like this:

And speaking of the tunnel — work down there is coming on as well.

Stay with me here, further down the road on TDT is this one right next to the Saigon Trade Center:

After this turn right down Le Duan and head to bottom and Nguyen Binh Kiem where you’ll find this spanking new beast:

Don’t go just yet, I have more pictures of building sites for you….back in town is this one on Le Thanh Ton, just down the road from the nearly completed Lancaster — the security gaurd is just off to see what in God’s name I am taking a picture of. Ooo they don’t like any kind of intrusion on their turf. I’d gone by the time he turned around and wagged his finger anyway.

Don’t know what’s gonna be here, but I’m sure the location is recognisable to anyone who’s been to Saigon — the New World Hotel with its tasteful shade of yellow stands in the background.

And finally, it seems like it was only yesterday that I noticed this pile of rubble which is now a finished building, although it wasn’t yesterday of course, it just seemed like yesterday. This is the corner of Dong Khoi and Le Loi, just before the Opera House.

With all this constructing going on, who can blame these guys for grabbing some shut-eye, allbeit in a rather unorthadox place, i.e, on the street.

Also see Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.

Doesn’t really look like HCM does it….of course, this is all brand new development so lets not confuse it with old Saigon. This place has a very different feel about it. The majority of the residents here are Korean. Keep walking and you’ll see this view:

So when I drive down here everyday on my way to work, which I do by the way, I make a point of taking a few deep breaths just because the air is so much cleaner out here. It’s certinaly a nice change from the previous 20 minutes of my drive where I’ve been gassed by the District One traffic and then sanded with the all the dust spinning around on the highway out from District 4. You need to be dressed like your going for a spin in a spitfire if you want to avoid everything the city streets can throw at you. If I took a deep breath in the morning rush hour going through D1 I’d probably end up with a nose bleed. When I’m driving back from Anh Phu after training with the Raiders, there are literally bits of grit flying through the air. I digress, as the shot above shows, this road is devoid of grit, dust and maniacs.

After a minute or so, we come to a bridge that spans the river, and a gated community that typifies the new developments in this area, ‘The Waterfront’.

The Waterfront doesn’t seem to be too lived in at the moment, but I have identified residents. We continue, passing on the right the turn off to the Vietnamese school in D7, a college and also…….you’ll never guess…….

Ok, so we go over the River and on both sides of the road are houses that are only just being finished. On the right you can plainly see the river winding into the distance and the fields beyond. You might see a lone boatman paddling upstream the same as he had 100 years ago.

Here’s some of those new houses:

Here is a wider shot, just to prove this is the place where the city is expanding into the countryside, and after this I’ll shut up about it, honest.