Prime Minister requests to stop $10.6 billion steel project

The $10.6 billion steel project in Ninh Thuan has been asked to be temporarily suspended to clarify a number of issues related to the environment, technology, and equipment of this project.

The Government Office has just announced the Prime Minister's conclusion at the Government Standing Committee meeting on the Ca Na steel project held in early March 2016.

Acknowledging the efforts of Ninh Thuan province and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to call for and attract investment to promote the socio-economic development of this province, the head of the Government found that the Ca Na steel project had only stopped at the preliminary assessment level, the project preparation work was hasty, and information about the project was inadequate, incomplete, and not comprehensive. Therefore, the Prime Minister requested Ninh Thuan province and agencies to temporarily suspend the proposal of this project to clarify a number of issues.

The Prime Minister requested to stop the implementation of the Ca Na steel project in Ninh Thuan province to clarify some issues surrounding this project.

Specifically, the parties need to carefully calculate the domestic and world steel market demand, on that basis review the planning of steel factories and product structure according to market demand to determine the capacity scale and appropriate time for project development.

Investors and authorities also need to carefully evaluate the project's environmental, technological, and equipment issues to ensure the project is safe and does not have an incident similar to Formosa.

In addition, the project also needs to redefine the total investment capital, taking into account deep-water seaports, railways, and roads, and clearly identify the project's raw material sources.

“This is a heavy industry steel rolling project proposed after the Formosa steel plant incident, so it is very sensitive. Therefore, the research step to propose investment policies needs to carefully consider the above contents at the project feasibility study level,” the document concluding the Prime Minister's opinion stated.

After carefully studying and clarifying the above issues, Ninh Thuan province coordinated with relevant agencies to complete and report to competent authorities for consideration according to regulations.

The Government leader also acknowledged that Ninh Thuan is a province with many difficulties, especially the suspension of investment in building nuclear power plants has had a significant impact on the province's socio-economic development. Attracting investment from factories is extremely necessary.

To develop, Ninh Thuan not only invests in steel factories and nuclear power plants but also has many other advantages such as investing in clean energy, solar power, tourism, organic agriculture... to bring multifaceted benefits to local socio-economic development.

Previously, at the Investment Promotion Conference in Ninh Thuan province held in August 2016, Mr. Le Phuoc Vu - Chairman of Hoa Sen Group said that he planned to invest in the construction of Hoa Sen - Ca Na steel project in this province, with a total investment capital of more than 10 billion USD, producing 16 million tons of steel per year.

This project was later included by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the draft steel industry planning until 2025, with a vision to 2035. However, in the second draft of this planning, the authorities removed the name of the investor from all projects, including Ca Na.

According to VNE