Vietnam's sea economic zone luring bigger foreign investment

A sea economic zone at the Van Phong Bay in central Vietnam is attracting more and more foreign investors, including those who want to invest billions of U.S. dollars in a single project, local newspaper Youth reported Thursday.

Sumitomo Corporation from Japan has applied for investment in the Van Phong Bay Economic Zone in Khanh Hoa province with total investment of nearly 4.2 billion dollars: a 4-billion dollar project on building a coal-fired power plant with a capacity of 2, 640 MW and a 196-million dollar project on constructing an international container transit port.

Posco from South Korea, the world's third biggest steel maker, is planning to build a steel production complex with an annual capacity of 4 million tons in the first phase and 8 million tons in the second one in the zone. Its investment will stand at 4 billion dollars in the first phase and some 7.2 billion dollars in the second one.

Many big companies from Japan, South Korea, the United States, Europe and the United Arab Emirates are planning investment in the economic zone which will, by 2020, fully develop into a multi- sectoral economic zone with modern infrastructure, including an international container port, according to the zone's management board.

To date, 48 domestic and foreign-invested projects totaling over 7 billion dollars which have been either licensed or waiting for approval are set to operate mainly in heavy industry, port development, marine service and tourism in the zone, the board said.

Source: Xinhua