By Francesco Guarascio and Phuong Nguyen
HUNG YEN (Reuters) -Vietnam’s prime minister and U.S. President Donald Trump’s son Eric held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday for a $1.5 billion luxury residential development with three 18-hole golf courses outside Hanoi.
The U.S. president’s Trump Organization family business and its local partners received approval for the project last week from the Communist authorities in Vietnam, which is separately negotiating over tariffs with Washington.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said Eric Trump’s visit “motivated us to expedite this project”, and urged local authorities to provide maximum support and facilitate the completion of the 990-hectare (2,446 acre) resort within the planned timeframe by the end of 2027.
Eric Trump is also set to meet Ho Chi Minh City officials on Thursday to explore plans for a skyscraper in Vietnam’s southern business hub, according to an internal schedule seen by Reuters.
Projects to be developed in Vietnam will be “the envy of all of Asia and of the entire world”, said Eric Trump, who is a senior vice president of the Trump Organization. He praised its Vietnamese partner, real estate firm Kinhbac City, and promised to visit the country “very often”.
The collaboration, whose terms are not public, “will focus on developing 5-star hotels, championship-style golf courses, and luxurious residential estates and unparalleled amenities in Vietnam,” the consortium said in a statement in October.
Vietnam was meant to be hit with some of the highest U.S. tariff rates of any country at 46% when President Trump announced his “Liberation Day” plan for global tariffs on April 2. Trump has since postponed the tariffs for 90 days.
Vietnamese trade negotiators are in Washington to discuss compromises. Offers made include lowering tariffs and non-tariff barriers, intensifying the fight against trade frauds and counterfeiting, and providing favourable conditions to Starlink, owned by Trump’s close ally Elon Musk, to roll out satellite internet services in Vietnam.
Organisers said the golf project in Hung Yen, a few kilometres south of Hanoi along the Red River, swiftly obtained approvals from local authorities.
Local people interviewed by Reuters outside the venue showed support for the project but some expressed concern over financial compensation. “Hopefully, we will get a reasonable compensation when they take the land for the project,” said Ha Nho Son, a 61-year-old farmer.
Chinh repeatedly said local people would be fairly compensated.
The Trump Organization has luxury golf projects, completed or under development, in countries from Indonesia to the Middle East.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio, Phuong Nguyen and Thinh Nguyen in Hung Yen;Editing by Saad Sayeed, Peter Graff and Ed Osmond)
