$2 billion entertainment complex breaks ground
Print 
Khang Thong group Monday broke ground on the Happy Land entertainment complex, considered the biggest tourism project in Southeast Asia, in the presence of Joe Jackson, father of late pop king Michael Jackson, in Long An Province, south of Ho Chi Minh City.
Developed on a 338ha area in Ben Luc District, the US$2 billion project is to include a theme park that costs $600 million, a 3.7 km boardwalk, a shopping center, 3-5 star hotels, water parks, studios, indoor and outdoor theaters, restaurants, a floating market, and other facilities.
The project site along the Vam Co Dong River was previously meant for a large-scale industrial park but Khang Thong has since switched to a tourist attraction construction plan following environmental concerns.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said at the groundbreaking ceremony broadcast live on a national TV that Happy Land Vietnam, a version of the renowned Disneyland theme park, would be the largest tourism project in Southeast Asia.
It is expected to draw fourteen million visitors a year including three million foreigners when finished in April 2014.
Earlier, Joe Jackson Friday landed in the southern metropolis to sign an investment agreement with Khang Thong to build a 1,000-room five-star hotel located inside the complex.
An American manager, former boxer and former musician, the 82-year-old man is best known as the father of American entertainers Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson, and the creator and manager of The Jackson 5, a Motown group comprising several of his children.
