Architect：gmp · von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects;Deutsches Haus Vietnam Invest Ltd.

Location：Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Project Year：2015

Category：Apartments;Housing

Stories By：gmp · von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects;Deutsches Haus Vietnam Invest Ltd.

On Saturday, 24 October 2015, the foundation stone laying ceremony for „German House“ took place in Ho Chi Minh City. The building will be constructed in accordance with plans by architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners. The building is designed to represent the Federal Republic of Germany, and in future will accommodate the German Consulate General with the associated visa office, trade associations, cultural organizations and the local offices of German companies. The building combines economical construction, efficient services and ambitious sustainability objectives, thereby representing the high standard of German architecture in Vietnam. The official foundation stone laying ceremony for „German House“ in Ho Chi Minh City, which was designed by gmp Architects, was attended by guests such as H.E. Vu Huy Hoang, the Vietnamese Minister for Industry and Trade and President of the Germany-Vietnam Friendship Association, the Head of the German Embassy Deputation, Hans-Jörg Brunner, as well as the investors and representatives of the architectural practice. After the Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners, together with the investors, emerged successfully from the tender procedure organized by the Foreign Office, the contract for the project was placed in 2013 and building work on the underground floors started as early as the end of November 2014. Completion of the high-rise building has been scheduled for the summer of 2017. Ho Chi Minh City is home to over 200 German companies, demonstrating the strong commercial cooperation between the two countries and hence the need for shared representation. The building with its 25 stories is intended to accommodate the German Consulate General with the associated residence, as well as the Goethe Institute amongst others. In addition, there will be offices for the German Chamber of Foreign Trade in Vietnam and for German companies and organizations, as well as a restaurant area with a generous panoramic terrace. The two top floors will be occupied by prestigious apartments. The 3,500 m2 construction site is located along one of the most prestigious city thoroughfares between the two Le Duan and Le Van Huu traffic arteries, in the midst of the densely developed and architecturally heterogeneous District 1, which contains mainly public cultural venues, consulates and extensive open parkland. The building is 75 meters high at its elevation bordering the street, rises to 110 m at the rear of the plot, and has a gross floor area of about 39,000 m2. The architectural concept of the design is based on the intention to express Germany’s leading role in industry and technology. Key aspects of a forward-looking architecture under the banner „Made in Germany“ are transparency, a clear structure, an economical construction method, and energy efficiency. The glass façade represents openness to the urban surroundings. The two interlinked parts of the building are different in height and are connected by „glass joints“. An arcade at street level opens up the high-rise building to both street fronts, and connects the entrance areas with the different foyers and functional sections. In order to create an environmentally compatible high-rise building which achieves the standards of current German low-energy buildings but in the tropical climate of South Vietnam, special emphasis was placed on the environmental criteria for the building services installations. A glazed double façade specially developed for this building will be installed – a first for Vietnam. Solar screening installed in the gap between the insulation glazing and the outer glass pane reduces the tropical heat load in the interior, and thus reduces the energy consumed by the air-conditioning system. The sustainably designed building takes into account criteria for LEED Gold certification, and will potentially be Vietnam’s first building to be certified under DGNB rules. Back in August this year the design already received two awards – the Vietnam Property Award for „best commercial development“, and an award for the „best green development“.

Vietnam is becoming the new Tiger Nation among the ASEAN countries, the German House in Ho Chi Minh City is the lighthouse for Central European and German companies and institutions in the ASEAN region are in 2017th

1. Macroeconomic Trends to stable growth:

The gross domestic product of Vietnam is expected to grow this year by at least 6.1%, and 2016 by at least 6.2%, and Vietnam will thus be the second fastest growing economy in Asia after India, according to the report "Asian Development Outlook 2015" (Asian Development perspectives 2015) the Asian Development Bank (ADB). According to the report "The World in 2050" (the world 2050) by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the country has the potential to be one of the fastest growing economies in the period until 2050th Vietnam is mentioned as a "factory of the world", the real gross domestic product will grow from 2014-2050 during the period by an average of 5.3% per year; a pace that is surpassed by the report of PwC only from Nigeria. The growth in China could fall below 4% against. Vietnam is improving not only as a cheaper and more efficient production alternative to its neighbor China and other ASEAN countries, but is also politically stable.

2. The development of unit labor costs favoring Vietnam:

According to calculations by the International Labour Organisation, the average monthly salary was in Vietnam in 2013 at $ 197, compared to $ 391 in Thailand and $ 613 in China; whereby the differences increase further. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) predicts that labor costs in manufacturing expected in 2019 at the hour 177% of which are amounted in Vietnam in China; increased by 147% in the year 2012 Design.

According to a recent study, the Standard Chartered Bank in China are planning 11% of manufacturing companies a transfer of production capacity from China to ASEAN or the other foreign countries, where Vietnam and Cambodia this stood at the top.

3. A young and hungry population education:

Demographic factors have an effect favoring. According to the UN, 13% of the Chinese population were in 2012 already 60 years and older, while the proportion of the population in Vietnam accounts for only 9%. According to the Government Information were in 2013 more than 40% of the over 90 million people strong Vietnamese population of working age between 15 and 49 years.

The results of the international studies of pupil achievement PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) have in 2012 showed that the general education system in Vietnam his students more successful than many other more prosperous countries with strong basic cognitive skills such as literacy and numeracy, equip. Vietnam's fifteen year old who cut a par with their first participation in the PISA study with peers from Germany and Austria, and better than the students from two-thirds of the participating countries. This overwhelming power is consistent with the results of a recent study on adult education, the Vietnamese panelist as a strong reader. In fact, the more widespread literacy was among the Vietnamese labor force is an important factor in the successful development of the country during the last two decades. It enabled workers to a rise of agricultural activities of low productivity to more productive non-agricultural occupations.

Almost 21% of total government spending were provided in 2010 for Education - a larger proportion than in any of the OECD countries. For 2015, even better PISA results from Vietnam are expected.

Another notable aspect which shows how much importance of education in Vietnamese society and culture belongs is that more than half of the children of some 120,000 Vietnamese living in Germany (the largest and most integrated Asian population in Germany) the highest level of education in secondary education, a high school, achieve. That entitled to academic training at German universities.

4. The fastest growing middle class in Southeast Asia:

Vietnam has the fastest growing middle class in Southeast Asia. In 2012 it belonged to 12 million people, and by 2020 it is expected to grow to 33 million people. Starting from a population of 97 million people, which is predicted for the year 2020, one-third of the Vietnamese population is approximately belong to the middle class. It is expected that those middle class will make 50% of total consumption in the country. In view of the trends in migration from rural to urban areas, the forecasts on the evolution of the middle class could be even surpassed.

5. Vietnam is with most free trade agreements among all the other geographically larger countries with high population density within the ASEAN region at the forefront:

Vietnam is making great progress in signing free trade agreements with other countries and regions, with the aim of improving trade, investment and the creation of market opportunities. On May 29, 2015 Vietnam has signed a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), whose members are Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan zeroing.

Previously, Vietnam had also signed a free trade agreement with South Korea, and currently maintains talks with the United States on membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement.

In the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a proposal for a free trade agreement between the United States, Japan, and ten other countries of the Pacific region, which Vietnam includes and represent 40% of global trade of the largest free-trade pact in the world would ,

Membership of Vietnam in the TPP is intended to promote exports, including exports to the United States, Vietnam's largest export partner. The trade volume between the two countries amounted in 2014 to 36.3 billion US dollars.

The talks on a free trade agreement with the EU also progressing successfully. The EU and Vietnam have signed a 13th round of negotiations on an EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, were discussed in the topics related to trade in goods, rules of origin, copyrights and sustainable development. The negotiations between Vietnam and the EU are already under way since May 2012 and the Free Trade Agreement shall be ratified by the end of the year 2015th

Once the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the EU has been completed, this could by 2025 result in an increase of the Vietnamese GDP by up to 7-8%. Vietnamese exports to the EU would be expected to rise by 10%. In 2014 the volume of trade between the EU and Vietnam, more than 28.3 billion euro was, said 22.1 billion euros fell to exports from the EU on Vietnamese imports into the EU and € 6.2 billion to Vietnam.

It is expected that the FTA will be a positive impact on the competitive advantage of Vietnam as a production and trade hub in the region, mainly because other than Singapore, no other ASEAN country will have a free trade agreement with the EU in the near future.

6. Emergence of the Eurasian Economic Community in 2016:

At the end of 2015, the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ASEAN Economic Community (ASEAN Economic Community, AEC) will start. ASEAN spans together an area of ​​4.4 million square kilometers and has a total population of 617 million people, the annual increase by 1.3%. In terms of population, the ASEAN Economic Community is thus larger than the EU and Russia. ASEAN is a Community gross domestic product taken together 2.4 trillion dollars currently the world's seventh largest economic community. Their growth is estimated by the establishment on 1 January 2016 to 5% and the joint gross domestic product is expected to reach a volume of USD 4 trillion in the year 2020th

Already, the initiative for a liberalized intra-regional trade in goods within the ASEAN Economic Community is very progressive. Between the six leading members, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore virtually all goods tariffs were abolished in the year of 2010.

In January 2016, the four stragglers are then commit significant steps in the same direction. Cambodia has abolished tariffs on around 3,000 items. Laos has been doing this for 1,000 items. Myanmar has been exempt from customs duties on 1,200 items. And Vietnam has taken the duties of approximately 1,700 articles. As a result, 96% of all goods are now subject to customs duties among the 10 ASEAN member states. This makes ASEAN worldwide as one of the freest trading rooms.

Mainly due to the increasing number of companies are more labor-intensive nature, Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines are likely to in not too long ago become the main engines of growth in the ASEAN region. Taken together, the countries of the ASEAN free trade area (ASEAN Free Trade Area, AFTA) are the third largest export market for Vietnam. Already in 2014, exports of Vietnam to ASEAN amounted to a volume of 18 billion US dollars.

It is anticipated that Vietnam will have made with regard to the requirements of the ASEAN Economic Community by the end of most of its tariff reduction. Not all needs will be met, however, tariffs are to be among the first steps of reform, so that duty-free trade in synchronism with the ASEAN and continue to be held by a private FTA with China. That is, there are no tariffs on Vietnamese exports to China.

In this context it should also be mentioned that Vietnam as a potential membership candidate in the TPP agreement with the United States over its ASEAN membership also has a free trade agreement with China, and therefore currently the only country with all these agreements, which moreover also a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) has.

7. Latest economic reforms to strengthen investment and trade

Vietnam counts on its far-reaching reforms and the facilitation of investment and trade in the last 25 years, and an accelerated sale of shares in state-owned enterprises.

On July 1, 2015, the Vietnamese government has adopted a new investment and corporate law, which provides for a reduction of regulation from 51 to only 6 areas. Companies will now be allowed to produce, among other things fireworks and genetically modified products. The government will reduce regulation in more than 100 other areas, which is to be regarded as the biggest reform of the trade and investment rules in the Vietnamese economy since the introduction of private enterprise in the year 1990 levels.

Foreign organizations that are active in Vietnam, or an investment project in Vietnam have, and those who leave to enter to Vietnam, are now eligible to buy houses (condominiums / apartments, villas and townhouses) within living systems. You may be obsessed over a period of 50 years (extendable under certain conditions), whereby restrictions on the proportion of foreign ownership within the condominium or the district are provided.

The most crucial economic reform, however, is to be expected on 1 September 2016 when the Vietnamese government lifting the restriction to 49% foreign ownership of certain listed companies. This means that foreign investors are allowed to hold in September 2015. 100 percent of the shares in selected industries, instead of the 49% that were previously approved. However, exceptions are made for investments in sectors where ownership rules are different, such as banks, or companies that are for national security significance. For those existing restrictions to be maintained.

8. Germany: Vietnam's most important trading partner in the European Union:

In terms of turnover Germany was over the last 5 years, the main trading partner of Vietnam in the European Union; 28% on trade between Vietnam and the EU. Last year, the bilateral trade volume amounted to 7.8 billion US dollars: German imports from Vietnam have increased by 5.3 percent to 5.18 billion US dollars, and German exports to Vietnam are by 6.5 percent to 2.62 billion US dollars increased. In the first two months of 2015, bilateral trade amounted to 1.28 billion US dollars, representing an increase of 15.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

While Germany is Vietnam's largest trading partner in the EU for many years, ranked the Federal Republic at number 22 of 101 countries and regions investing in Vietnam. Currently 232 ongoing projects are made with a total capital of 1.25 billion US dollars. Approximately 250 German companies such as Siemens, BMW Euro Auto, Schaeffler, German Bank Adidas, Puma, BOSCH, B.Braun, Bayer, Mercedes-Benz, BASF, Fresenius or to name a few, have been successful in Vietnam.

It is expected that many more German companies will settle in Vietnam in the coming years in order to benefit from the stable and improving economic conditions, which has as a starting point for German companies doing business in the ASEAN region to offer Vietnam.

9. Vietnam is a strategic partner of Germany in the Asia-Pacific Region

For years, Germany is one of Vietnam's most important partners in Europe. The trust and mutual understanding between the two countries were strengthened through regular exchanges and delegations at the highest level.

The bilateral relations between Vietnam and Germany are characterized by a special quality. More than 125,000 Vietnamese and German with Vietnamese roots live in Germany. In Vietnam, more than 100,000 people speak German.

2011, the "Hanoi Declaration" by German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to build a strategic partnership with the aim of improving cooperation on several important areas, signed. In 2015 the two countries are celebrating the fortieth anniversary of their diplomatic relations.

The cooperation between the two countries in the fields of investment, trade, culture, education and training, tourism, as well as in science and technology is very tight.

Germany is in Vietnam one of the most important and active donors in official development assistance, with more than 1.5 billion US dollars, which were provided for development projects since 1990 levels. The federal government has pledged for the period 2014-2015 development funds of nearly 100 million US dollars, said the three areas of energy, environment and vocational training priority should be given.

German companies are also involved in the expansion of the network of urban mass transport system in Ho Chi Minh City. The project is the Asian Development Bank (Asian Development Bank, ADB), the German Development Bank (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, KfW) and the European Investment Bank (European Investment Bank, EIB) with a total capital of 1.3 billion US dollars, of which 340 million US dollars from Germany, supported financially. The aim of the project is to create a safe and comfortable transport system for its passengers, and to promote economic growth of the city.

Another important project in Germany in Vietnam, the Vietnamese-German University (Vietnamese-German University, VGU), a public university of Vietnam, which was founded and opened in September 2008 in Ho Chi Minh City, and on close cooperation founded between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the German state of Hesse. Currently, more than 1,000 students already enrolled in innovative programs. The aim is to establish a world-class research university. The strategy of the VGU is to introduce excellent German courses of the strongest engineering disciplines in Germany, and those adapted to the requirements of Vietnamese higher education.

Plans and designs for building a model nines University as a new campus for the Vietnamese-German University (VGU) in Binh Duong Province near Ho Chi Minh City are currently being prepared for a start of construction in the year 2016th With 180.4 million dollars in capital from the World Bank funds not only a new Science and Technology University is created, the highly qualified graduates required in the labor market brings. Also to reforms that are taking place in the field of training, testing, and other Vietnamese universities should benefit in terms of increased self-reliance in the areas of administration, finance and quality management thereof.

Referring to the mission that has been defined by the Vietnamese government, is the declared goal of the VGU, to become the leading high-tech university of Vietnam and the region. They will set priorities in high technology and sustainable development.

Another milestone in the strategic partnership between Vietnam and Germany is the cooperation in the field of vocational training. The German model, universities, colleges, bringing together vocational institutions and businesses, stands out in Vietnam and around the world still characterized by great success. Trainees in Germany are dual trained, ie, besides the schooling they receive at the same time practical training and can have a degree and a diploma obtained for more than 350 recognized trades in the German Chamber of Commerce (IHK).

In January 2013, Vietnam and the BOSCH Technical / Technological University Lilama 2 have concluded a first cooperation agreement on professional training for mechatronics engineers, followed by a strategic memorandum of understanding between the two governments for vocational training. The MoU aims to improve the skills of Vietnamese workers in the context of international integration of vocational training.

Today, many German and Vietnamese companies can under a world-class program for the vocational training of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (AHK) and the GIZ in Vietnam, offer a progressive and adapted to the specific needs of vocational training, which is certified and a degree in fulfillment German and Vietnamese standards offers.

The building consists of 25 floors with a total of approximately 30,000 square meters of first-class office space . The completion of the building is planned for the third quarter of 2017th

The German House offers modern facilities and all the services expected of a first-class office building .

The building is a symbol of the strategic partnership between Vietnam and Germany . It will not only be the future seat of the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ho Chi Minh City , but also an economic lynchpin for existing and future cooperation between German institutions and companies as well as for investments in Vietnam and Southeast Asia .

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