Nghe An plays hard ball

illustration photo

Dong Nam Nghe An Economic Zone (EZ) and Industrial Zone (IZ) Authority is  drawing a list of delayed projects and plans to take back land to give it to new investors.

According to the authority’s deputy head Phan Xuan Hoa, creating ‘clear’ space for investors was the way the authority supported investors in the face of the province’s tight budget.

“We are calling for support from infrastructure developers to be able to give investors clear land,” Hoa said.

Vast land was unused due to project delays, according to Hoa. Accordingly, from 2007 until present, the authority took back investment licences of 23 projects, including six projects in 2010 alone.

Nam Cam IZ alone had 16 projects having licences taken back. The IZ area would have been leased out to licenced projects. However, the number of projects actually off the ground was just a handful, therefore a huge land area remains unused.

“We face difficulties in taking back land since some delayed project developers opposed to our decision,” Hoa said.

Nghe An is currently home to eight industrial zones and economic zones embedded in the list of priority industrial zones for development until 2015 with a vision towards 2020 covering a total area of 2,860ha.

The prime minister green-lighted the planning of Dong Nam Nghe An EZ, consisting of Nam Cam IZ and Thanh Thuy border-gate economic zone.

The province’s EZs and IZs lured in 87 projects, including 10 on-going foreign direct investment projects.

Most prominent projects are Japan-backed Kobelco’s $1 billion iron-nugget manufacturing complex with an annual capacity of two million tonnes, an India-backed $25 million mineral processing and fertiliser production project and a Vietnam Cement Corporation’s $33.8 million non-baked building material production plant.