Nix waste treatment gets nixxed

January 21, 2013 | 14:41

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Hanoi Minerals Metallurgy, expected to develop a nix waste treatment facility in Van Phong Economic Zone of central coastal Khanh Hoa province, had its investment certificate revoked by local authorities last week.

Hoang Dinh Phi, deputy head of Van Phong Economic Zone Management Authority, said that Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee decided to withdraw the investment certificate of the waste treatment project because of its scant progress since it was licenced four year ago.

Phi said that the investment certificate withdrawal was due to the fact that Hanoi Minerals Metallurgy Joint Stock Company (HMMC) lacked “enough financial capability” to implement this project.

The project has the total investment capital of $71.4 million, in which HMMC planned to borrow $47.6 million from Vietnam Development Bank (VDB). However, VDB did not approve to provide the loan.

“We will continue calling for potential investors to replace HMMC in this important project,” said Phi.
On December 14, 2009, under a contract signed between Hyundai-Vina-shin (HVS), a joint-venture between South Korea’s Hyundai Group and the Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (Vinashin), HMMC broke ground for construction of the plant to treat 330,000 tonnes of nix waste per year.
The construction of the plant was initially expected to be complete in March 2011 and start treatment of nix waste from HVS’s manufacturing facility, which had not only impacted nearby residents and but also the investment climate in the province. But construction works on the site stopped in early 2011 because HMMC could not mobilise funds.

In July 2012, Van Phong Economic Zone Management Authority sent its proposal to Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee to ask for the project’s investment certificate withdrawal.