Site clearance delay leaves textile firms in tatters

Lai Vu Industrial Park

According to Hai Duong People’s Committee’s report, Pacific Vietnam Textile and Crystal Corporation’s projects with combined registered investment capital of $557 million have suffered from painfully slow site clearance.

The report said that nearly 40 households affected by the site clearance have obstructed Lai Vu Industry Park (IP) infrastructure construction everyday since 2012, demanding reasonable compensation costs and employment.

In June 2013, the due-to-be-displaced families also hindered Pacific Vietnam Textile and Crystal Corporation’s test hole drilling operations in IP areas marked for factory buildings.

The two projects received licenses in April 2013 for an area covering 31.17 hectares in Lai Vu IP. Pacific Vietnam Textile’s $425 million project aims to produce cloth and raw materials for the textile and garment industries, with capability to produce 360 million metres of cloth per year for both domestic and overseas markets, while Crystal Group’s $120 million garment project would specialise in producing and trading textile and garment products for exports.

The two projects are expect to provide employment for 20,000 local labourers as well as contribute to the reduction of Vietnam’s trade deficit by meeting local demand for cloth as well as exporting.

Lai Vu IP is one of seven projects invested by state-owned shipbuilding group Vinashin where governmental inspectors detected wrongdoings in investment in 2011.

Lai Vu IP is now under the management of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group and has attracted 11 projects including the two foreign textile and garment investments.

Deputy chairman of Hai Duong People’s Committee Nguyen Duong Thai claimed the two big foreign textile and garment projects were “a good chance” for the development of Hai Duong province in general and particularly for Lai Vu IP, especially in the context of hard economic times which have seen many firms halt operations or enter bankruptcy.

Thai said that the provincial authorities would roll up their sleeves to have the two projects up and running, otherwise Lai Vu IP’s infrastructure could be downgraded and land resources left idle.