HANOI – Saudi Arabia’s Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Alsaud has been in Vietnam for meetings with the Vietnamese government at which he discussed future investments in the country.
Prince Al-Waleed, 50, a member of the Saudi royal family, co-owns the luxury Four Seasons hotel chain with Microsoft chairman and founder Bill Gates. He heads Kingdom Hotels Investments (KPI) which is pushing ahead with plans to acquire more properties in Asia.
Prince Al Waleed was ranked No 13 in the Forbes 2006 list of the world’s richest people, and has an estimated fortune of US$20.3 billion dollars.
In Hanoi he met Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, who told the prince that the government welcomed his investment interest in tourism, real estate, finance and banking projects.
The Prime Minister has asked Saudi Arabia to open an embassy in Hanoi to speed up cooperation between the two nations.
The prince took time to examine progress of Saudi invested hotels in Danang, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Raffles Da Nang will open in 2011 with approximately 150 hotel suites and 15 private residential villas for sale.
Most recently, Dubai-based KPI paid US$58 million for a 100 percent stake in the 387-room Traders Hotel in Kunshan – the company’s first acquisition in China.
Located between Shanghai and Suzhou in the heart of the rapidly developing Yangtze River Delta, Kunshan is one of China’s leading semiconductor and micro electronics manufacturing hubs for the region.
-by Ian Jarrett
