The chairman of the Quang Ngai Province People’s Committee, Nguyen Xuan Hue, talks with Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times) about plans for boosting industrial investment.

Under the Government plan the entire country will become industrialised by 2020. How has Quang Ngai Province been preparing to fulfil its obligations in relation to the plan?

We have identified the Dung Quat Economic Zone (EZ) as an area to develop the central and Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) regions.

The provincial Party Committee’s resolution has set a priority in industry and has set a target that industry will account for 65 per cent of total growth by 2010 we plan to be industrialised by 2015, which is five years earlier than the Government’s plan.

By 2010, the total investment capital in the Dung Quat EZ is expected to reach US$4.5 billion.

Currently, there are 61 projects that have been granted licences, these projects have a total investment of VND58.7 trillion ($3.6 billion), including large scale projects such as the $2.5 billion Dung Quat Oil Refinery Plant, the $1 billion Tycoons Steel Plant and the $260 million Doosan Machinery Manufacturing plant.

There are a further 35 projects that have accepted investments of nearly VND17.5 trillion ($1.1 billion). The province has also managed to lease all the available land in the two industrial zones of Tinh Phong and Quang Phu. There will be 135 projects conducted in these zones which will create jobs for 30,000 people by 2010.

Together with Viet Nam’s accession to the WTO and the successful hosting of the APEC 2006, we believe there will be a new flow of foreign direct investment, that will bolster our total output.

Provincial inspectors have been checking on projects that are not operational in the Dung Quat EZ, it seems that there have been cases where investors have been purchasing land that is laden with incentives and not carrying out their stated projects. Can you explain this?

Among the nearly 70 approved projects, two thirds of them have already begun operations, with the remaining projects in the areas of services, textiles and wood processing have only been partly or newly-invested.

One reason for this is that many investors are waiting until Dung Quat oil refinery starts up.

Currently, the provincial inspectors are checking all the projects to determine why some enterprises have been tardy in their establishment schedules.

The province has decided that enterprises which exceed the deadline for establishment of projects will have their land reclaimed. Those who violate the Land Law will be severely punished.

I must stress that these seem like isolated incidents and are not widespread in the Dung Quat EZ.

Can the province meet the expected human resources demand of a large number of skilled workers when projects kick off in the Dung Quat EZ?

Together with industrial development, attracting investors and creating a favourable environment for investment through administrative reforms, the province has also focused on human resources training. We know that this has been a weak point in the province, so we have been aggressively trying to change this.

It is estimated that by 2010, the economic zone will need at least 20,000 workers. This is a great opportunity but also places a lot of pressure upon us.

For example, when the oil refinery becomes operational it will need 9,000 highly skilled welders which we just do not have at present. We are facing a similar problem with the Tycoons Steel Plant.

For a long time, we focused on training white collar professionals, but we now know we also need to pay greater attention to skilled workers as well. South Korea has stepped up to help us build a well-equipped training school worth $5 million for the purpose of training skilled workers.

Source: VietnamNews