The Deputy Minister for Education and Training, Mr Pham Manh Hung, on Saturday met with leaders of Da Nang and Quang Nam Province to discuss the implementation of the city’s University Village project, which has been suspended for 17 years.

The project was officially approved by the Vietnamese Prime Minister on 9 December 1997.  It is scheduled to encompass 110ha in Da Nang’s Ngu Hanh Son District and 190ha in Quang Nam Province’s Dien Ban District.

Some local households affected by the project have yet to be relocated

In 2004, the municipal authorities approved the construction of the 10ha Viet Nam-Korea Friendship Information Technology College on the village site, and in 2009 earmarked 3.5ha for the Tran Dai Nghia Street expansion project in Ngu Hanh Son District.  In addition, the city’s Information Technology College, the new Medicine and Pharmacy Faculty of the University of Da Nang, and a student hall of residence with a total area of 25.4 ha are under construction.  However, no construction work has so far been started on the 190ha of land in Quang Nam Province.

The Director of the University of Da Nang, Mr Tran Van Nam, said that there are now only 261.1ha of land left for the construction of the university village, which is only enough for the construction of the new universities of Economics and Technology.  The city authorities will therefore now make reasonable adjustments to expand the village project.  This will allow the city to construct the Viet Nam-UK University, a Medicine and Pharmacy University and its hospital, the Information Technology and Communications University, the Hi-tech Institute, the Centre for Defence and Security Education, student halls of residence, and other auxiliary facilities.

The University Village project will be implemented at a cost of 300 million USD, which is expected be paid from the State’s budget, along with domestic and foreign donations.

At the meeting, Deputy Minister Hung and the leaders of the 2 localities agreed to ask Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung for his approval to begin the implementation of the project as soon as possible.