Rent-A-Port inks Quang Ninh MOU

Rent-A-Port is preparing a second major port project in Quang Ninh following its successful Haiphong investment
-photo LeToan

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed late last month during an investment promotion conference held by the local authorities. The two companies will work closely with the local authorities to complete administrative procedures to push the project forward.

The developers have also agreed to provide documents proving financial capability “as soon as possible” and  submit a feasibility study for the project to the local authorities for approval within this year, the MOU stipulated. The development underscores Rent-A-Port’s commitment to Quang Ninh. It completed its feasibility study, targeting the Mac Dynasty Lagoon area in Quang Yen district. The committee previously approved 490 hectares that would include an industrial park and a seaport valued at around $120 million.

In April, Rent-A-Port and consultancy and engineering firm Ecorem submitted their study to the local authorities.

Ecorem looked at 3,710ha to select the best location for the project. It proposed expanding the scale to 1,000ha  but so far the committee has only approved an initial 500ha. If the expansion is approved, the first phase would take place between 2016 and 2020 and cost $412 million.

This is Rent-A-Port and InfraAsia’s second port and industrial park complex project in Vietnam, after the Dinh Vu port and industrial park complex in the northern port city of Haiphong, which borders Quang Ninh.

Rent-A-Port and InfraAsia – in association with Belgim International Port Engineering & Management – started investing in the Dinh Vu Industrial Park in 1997. The first phase of the project is entirely occupied and the developer is starting on the second phase, which will cover 377ha. According to Rent-A-Port, nearly 50 per cent of the second phase is already occupied. The project has attracted 53 projects so far with the total investment capital of $3 billion. Foreign investors in the zone include Bridgestone, Shin-etsu, Chevron, Toyota Tsusho, and JX Nippon.

Positioned on the border of China’s Guangxi province and bordering Vietnam’s Lang Son, Bac Giang and Hai Duong provinces and Haiphong, Quang Ninh is emerging as the north of Vietnam’s third major industrial hub after Hanoi and Haiphong. It is also home to the nation’s largest coalmine, 11 industrial parks and two economic zones. The Vietnamese government is preparing to establish a special economic zone in the province to further bolster the local economic growth.

Thailand’s leading industrial land developer Amata Corporation has similarly proposed to build a hi-tech park and township complex in Quang Yen district, capitalised at around $2 billion. This proposal has yet to receive the Vietnamese government approval.