Quang Ngai seeks new FDI for heavy industry complex

Those projects, which will be offered to foreign investors from now to 2020, include a 1.2 billion- megawatt gas-fired power plant, a 300-hectare industrial park serving for heavy manufacturing industries, a tire-manufacturing factory having an annual capacity of two million units, an integrated steel factory that could produce 10 million tonnes of steel per year, an oil refinery and petrochemical complex with an annual refining capacity of 10 million tonnes, an industrial equipment manufacturing factory and a fibre and textile factory.

In addition, the province also calls for investments in a shipyard project, a deep-water seaport, a rubber manufacturing factory and an automotive component manufacturing factory. Most of projects in the list are planned inside the province’s Dung Quat Economic Zone (EZ).

The introduction of the wishlist is part of the province’s efforts to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) to boost its socio-economic development.

“The wishlist is planned carefully. We want to offer foreign investors specific options,” said Le Van Dung, deputy director of Dung Quat Economic Zone Management Authority.

“Quang Ngai is turning into an industrial manufacturing hub in the central region in particular and in Vietnam in general,” he said, explaining why most of the projects are in heavy industries.

Home to Dung Quat EZ and Dung Quat oil refinery, the first one of Vietnam, Quang Ngai in the recent years has emerged as a good destination for investments. According to Quang Ngai Provincial People’s Committee, foreign and domestic investors registered to invest in 274 projects in the province during 2006-2011, with the total investment capital of around $5 billion.

Most of those projects are in industrial manufacturing sector. South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries in 2007 built a $300 million industrial manufacturing complex in Dung Quat EZ. In the future, the group plans to further expand investments in Quang Ngai by building a nuclear power reactors manufacturing facility.

VSIP, the leading industrial park and township developer in Vietnam, in 2011 decided to build a 1,226 hectare integrated township and industrial park in Quang Ngai after studying five central provinces.

The development comprises an industrial park located within the Dung Quat EZ, where the government-supported special economic zone incentives are made available to manufacturers. In addition, the developer will build a commercial and residential township near Quang Ngai downtown.

VSIP believes Quang Ngai is ideal for labour-intensive, fast-moving consumer goods and food and beverage manufacturing, serving both the northern and southern regions in addition to its central market that stretch from Thua Thien-Hue to Phu Yen provinces.

Another big foreign investor is Singapore’s Sembcorp Industries, which is studying to build a $2 billion thermal power plant in Dung Quat EZ. The project was approved in principle in April 2012 by the provincial people’s committee.  And JFE Steel, the world’s sixth largest steel maker, in early 2012 announced the plan to acquire stakes in E-United Group’s $4.5 billion steel project in Vietnam.

The Japanese corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with E-United Group, a Taiwanese corporate group engaged in steel production, medical services, education and real estate, to study the feasibility of building and operating an integrated steelworks in Vietnam at which JFE Steel would be the major shareholder.