HANOI, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Vietnamese firm is encroaching sea in southern Ho Chi Minh City to build tourism resorts and residential areas, the first of this kind in Vietnam, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Friday.

    The project's investor, joint stock company CTC, is using over 25 million cubic meters of sand to level a 600-ha. site in Can Giocoastal district to make beaches, villas, and apartment blocks with total investment of more than 8.4 trillion Vietnamese dong (about 525 million U.S. dollars).

    It will take the CTC five years to complete sea encroachment and technical infrastructure. Construction of all architectural works on the site, full of mangrove forests, is scheduled to finish by 2016.

    The sea encroachment work started on Thursday.