Park to replace giant steel complex

The government has agreed to develop an industrial park on the site of the country’s ever-largest foreign invested project in Ninh Thuan province.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last week allowed the province to convert the $9.8 billion Ca Na steel complex, revoked two months ago, into Ca Na Industrial Park. He also agreed to add this park into the list of prioritised industrial zones till 2015.

“The transformation aims to use land effectively and attract investments for the provincial industrial development in accordance with the local economic development plan till 2020,” said a Ninh Thuan People’s Committee document.

The 1,000ha park will attract manufacturing projects supporting green energy development in Ninh Thuan.

Truong Thi Lieu, deputy director of Ninh Thuan Industrial Parks Authority, said Vietnam’s Ocean Energy Development Corporation had been proposed to invest into the project with total investment capital of around $50 million.

She said the provincial authorities wanted to develop the park as a destination for foreign investors manufacturing equipment for green energy projects. “We have large potential for green energy like solar and wind power and nuclear power,” she said.

Coastal Ninh Thuan province, about 350 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh City, has attracted investors’ interests in wind and solar power projects.

In March this year, Belgium’s Enfinity obtained an investment certificate for a 553ha, $251 wind power farm in Thuan Nam and Ninh Phuoc districts. The project will have a generation capacity of around 124.5 megawatts. Vietnamese firm Trung Nam Group is also proposing to build a $200 million wind power farm in the province.

The government planned to build two nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan with a combined capacity of 4,000MW by 2020.

Local authorities estimates wind power generation in the province will be 1,500-2,000MW by 2020. This, combined with the province-based nuclear and hydropower power production, will satisfy around 8 per cent of the country’s total electricity demand.

In September 2008, Lion Group and Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group received investment certificate for investing into Ca Na steel manufacturing project, which has an annual capacity of 14 million tonnes of steel.

The joint venture broke ground Cana steel project two months later. Under the initial development plan of the joint venture, the first phase of project was scheduled to complete construction in 2010. The whole project will be fully completed by 2025.

However, Lion Group, which accounts for 70 per cent of the stake in the joint venture, had done nothing to develop the project since November 2009. – VIR