Hà Nội invites public comment on planned $500m horse racetrack project

An overview of Sóc Sơn District. — VNA/VNS Photo Vũ Sinh

HÀ NỘI — The Sóc Sơn District People’s Committee is collecting public comments on a horse racetrack project, which would be built in Tân Minh and Phù Linh communes, and Sóc Sơn Town, in the suburbs of Hà Nội.

The public comment period will continue until February 4.

Sóc Sơn District will seek opinions on the necessity and goals of the project, its impact on the community, land planning, spatial chart, landscape architecture, urban design and traffic connection between the racetrack and surrounding areas.

The district will synthesise and analyse submitted comments to supplement or adjust the project to ensure suitability with the local situation and meet the development orientations of the district and the capital.

The project must also be consistent with Hà Nội’s general planning construction.

The horse racetrack project is proposed to have total investment of about US$500 million and is expected to bring large revenues for the locality.

Evaluating the project’s economic efficiency, Hà Nội authorities confirmed that the project would be among tourist destinations. When operational, it would be an additional high quality tourism product.

The city leaders said that the project would have an impact on the city’s budget but not significantly, because the city only spent its budget on clearing agricultural land in the project area.

When completed, the horse racetrack was expected to earn about US$40-50 million of business income tax and about $100-200 million of special consumption tax from its activities.

The Sóc Sơn racecourse was expected to become an international sports centre and to host the Asiad or Olympics in the future.

Besides, it would positively affect other nearby tourist destinations and urban areas.

It would create direct jobs for about 5,000 workers, and attract about 25,000 others to work in different services in its zone.

The racetrack was planned to start in 2021, however, it faced some obstacles so it could not be deployed.

In mid-2022, Hà Nội proposed the Prime Minister remove difficulties to implement the project. — VNS