Local Authorities Reject A Series Of FDI Projects

Vietnam remains an attractive destination for foreign investors

Under current laws, if investors don’t contact the agencies which granted the investment licenses to them within 90 days from the notice, their projects will be terminated in Vietnam and procedures will be implemented as stipulated by the law.

In HCM City, in the first half of May, state management agencies released a series of notices looking for the investors whose projects had stopped operating for a long time.

The projects were registered by investors from many different countries and territories, including the US, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines.

Business names included Weita (Samoa), Ventron Technologies Vietnam (the US), Thermatex Vietnam (a joint venture with the investor from Australia), Caravans (Australia), Taa Wieu (Taiwan), Korvet (South Korea), Hielectric (Taiwan), C&N (Philippines) and Maxrob (US).

HCM City regularly examines the implementation of projects registered in the city to revoke licenses of projects which were not implemented as committed. To date, the HCM City People’s Committee has annulled 577 projects and reduced the land area allocated to 10 projects.

In October 2017, the Hoa Binh IZ Management Board released a notice for the investor of two projects – the Bia Tiep brewery and Lac Thinh IZ. Both projects were registered by one investor – BTG Holding.

Bia Tiep Brewery received the investment registration certificate in October 2012. It was praised as a great achievement of the Hoa Binh provincial authorities in attracting FDI. The project had the largest investment capital licensed in the locality at that time. 

Under the project, BTG Holding would build an 86 million euro brewery with capacity of 190 million liters a year. Beer would be exported to South Korea, China and Japan. 

The investor estimated that its first products would hit the market in 2015. After that, BTG Holding will build a thermal power plant worth 100 million euros and a car parts factory worth 200 million euros.

However, the projects are still on paper. 

An analyst commented that the elimination of projects is just a ‘formality’, because in fact, the projects have stopped operating for a long time.

Weita project, for example, stopped operations in August 2004, Ventron Technologies Vietnam in August 2010 and Thermatex in March 2011. There are the projects which have stopped operation for 14-15 years, but their “deaths” had never been publicly declared.

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