The ambitious projects that never come true

The Thanh Son cement plant in Thanh Hoa, capitalized at VND1.5 trillion, has been left idle over the last four years, while hundreds of people trained to work at the factory, have been left unemployed.

The project, developed by the Thang Long Investment and Trade JSC, was expected to churn out high quality cement which would be provided to the western Thanh Hoa market, the localities along the Ho Chi Minh Road and exported to Laos. Chinese Simona Group was the supplier of the equipments to the plant.

In order to have the site for the cement plant, 200 households in Ngoc Lac district had to leave, and 35.78 hectares of agriculture land was cleared for the site. The plant was initially planned to become operational in the first quarter of 2010. However, it has been left idle over the last four years.

About 10 years ago, a large land plot of 30,000 square meters was leased to the Viet Trung Investment Cooperation Corporation which committed to develop the Toan Cau Brewery in Ha Tinh province.

A high hope was put on the project--that it would serve as the driving force for the local economic development and create 250 jobs for local workers when it gets operational, slated for 2006. 

However, the dream has yet come true yet. The project has been postponed for indefinite time, while 30,000 square meters of the “golden land” located on an advantageous position on the Highway No 1A has been left fallow over the last many years. 

Analysts believe that the local authorities made a fatal mistake when allowing to develop a brewery in an urban area, which has led to the death of the factory.

Trillions of dong buried in the projects in Dung Quat

The Dung Quat Economic Zone in Quang Ngai province was once a promising destination for investors. A lot of projects worth multi-million dollars were drawn up by a lot of investors.

However, the projects have just gone a half way. Big money has been poured into the locations, but not to build factories. Only the grazing pastures have been arisen there so far.

The complex of hotel, restaurant, entertainment area in Van Tuong City developed by Van Nam Company Ltd, capitalized at tens of billions of dong, is getting decayed every day in the central area of the Van Tuong new urban area.

The mechanical engineering workshop of the Dung Quat Shipbuilding yard has also been left idle for a long time, while the shipbuilding company still has to spend VND4 million a month to hire two security guards.

The $4.5 billion steel complex project, which was kicked off in late October 2007, has made no further progress since then. After a lot of delays, in 2012, JFE Group decided to join forces with Taiwanese E-United to continue developing the steel project, promising to resume the project implementation in June 2012.

However, sources have said the project would be delayed for some more time because the investors plan to reconsider the risks.

At least 15 billion-dollar projects have not been developed as scheduled in Dung Quat Economic Zone.

Vietnamnet