TIẾNG VIỆT Lotte to invest $900 million in Vietnam smart city project
Lotte’s planned smart city in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam (File photo, Courtesy of Lotte)
Lotte Group, the fifth-largest corporation in South Korea, plans to invest $900 million in Vietnam to create a smart city as part of an active growth strategy in Southeast Asia.
Lotte on Sunday presented a plan to use its smart technology and retail know-how to construct a 60-story mall, offices, and other structures on a 50,000 square meter plot of land in Ho Chi Minh.
In Thu Thiem, which Vietnam hopes to develop into a district resembling Pudong in Shanghai, a finance and trade zone of the Chinese city, the group will build a smart city that offers telemedicine through the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence, as well as intelligent payment systems and delivery services by drones and robots.
Through the investment, Lotte hopes to increase stagnating international sales in general, beginning in Vietnam. The conglomerate’s overseas sales fell to 8.3 trillion won ($6 billion) last year from 9 trillion won in 2019.
“We plan to raise the group’s sales to 100 trillion won by actively targeting Southeast Asia, led by Vietnam,” said a group official. In 2021, the group’s total sales stood at around 75 trillion won.
On September 2, the nation's independence day, during a groundbreaking ceremony for the smart city, Chairman Shin Dong-bin said that the group will increase investment in Vietnam.
Lotte has already made a concerted effort to increase its market share in Vietnam. Typically, a 23-story retail mall in Hanoi that will be finished next year cost 330 billion won.
With over 260 locations, Lotteria, a fast-food restaurant chain that entered the market in 1998, is the dominant brand in the nation. There, the retail divisions of the firm, Lotte Mart and Lotte Department Store run 14 hypermarkets and two branches, respectively. There are Lotte Duty-Free locations in Nha Trang, Da Nang, and Hanoi.
The group seeks to advance the digital healthcare and bio sectors as potential future development engines that Vietnam wishes to develop.
Source: KED Global
