AEON Mall, the Japanese retailer, will build a US$190-million shopping center in the northern province of Bac Ninh. This is considered one of the key projects contributing to make the province an attractive destination for investors as well as tourists. 

Local people are buying at the AEON Mall department store and supermarket in the northern port city. Photo: AEON Mall

The Japanese group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Bac Ninh provincial People’s Committee on the investment study of a shopping center on March 26.  

The shopping mall is expected to become operational by 2022 and create jobs for 3,000 local residents. “Agricultural products of the northern province would be sold at the shopping center or exported to Japan via AEON distribution channels,” said Nakagawa Tetsuyuki, General Director of AEON Mall Vietnam.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vuong Quoc Tuan, Deputy Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said that it is a Bac Ninh’s key project and the local authority will support the investor in the execution of the project so as for the mall to inaugurate soon.  

In February, the Japanese company also signed a MOU with the provincial People’s Committee of Thua Thien-Hue to research the possibility of building a US$160-million commerical center in the town. 

The retailer plans to invest more than US$2 billion in building 20 malls across the country by 2025. It currently runs six shopping malls in Vietnam including two in Hanoi and three in Ho Chi Minh City and one in the northern city of Haiphong.

The Japanese investor is seeking Hanoi’s approval for the construction of another AEON shopping mall on the site of what used to be Giap Bat bus terminal in Hoang Mai district.