Officials have big plans in store for Nha Trang, presenting an urban development plan that they claim would make the coastal city “more beautiful than Hawaii” and “more developed than Hong Kong.”

Khanh Hoa Province Chairman, Nguyen Chien Thang, said that the plan to urbanize Nha Trang is necessary to “rival Singapore and Hong Kong,” reports Tuoi Tre. 

Thang brushed aside concerns voiced by experts over the city’s growing "wall of high-rises." "These are just the opinions of a few people, not a majority. We still listen to these opinions but will not follow them. Behind the zoning is a national committee and even the Prime Minister so it is inappropriate to listen to a few voices."

Thang’s comments pushed the concept of Nha Trang as an urban center and special municipality akin to Hong Kong or Singapore, rather than simply a tourist hot spot.

“Many people say Nha Trang is an ecotourism area, which is incorrect,” he said. “If you want ecotourism development, please go to Bai Dai or Van Phong Bay.”

That said, the Chairman still wants to boost tourism numbers by embracing the urban development plan that would make the city “…even more beautiful than Hawaii.”

This is not the first time Thang has set his eyes on the prize, previously predicting that Nha Trang will be “more developed than Hong Kong in the future,” due to its ecosystem potential.

Many of the experts labeled as the minority by Thang have publicly called his grandiose visions into question.

Architect Nguyen Van Loc, a former director of the Khanh Hoa construction department and now chairman of the province’s architecture association was “very upset” over the chairman’s speech.

“And yet the province’s chairman just called us a myopic minority, which is very sad,” Loc said.

Architect Nguyen Hoang, deputy chairman of the province’s architecture association, warned that the planning should be carefully reviewed as “any mistakes will be impossible to be corrected.”

[Photo via Mr.Bach]