Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony held in the province yesterday, the Prime Minister welcomed the project's investor, the Formosa Heavy Industry Group from Taiwan, and relevant domestic sectors for their close co-ordination in completing necessary procedure for the construction.

The project will include the Iron Steel Plant, with a capacity of 7.5 million tonnes a year, which will be raised to 15 million tonnes per year in its second period. As many as 10,000 labourers are expected to work directly on the project.

Son Duong Port, which serves the Iron/Steel Plant, will be constructed on an area of over 3,000ha, of which more than l,000ha will be water surface in Vung Ang Economic Zone, within the province. This will allow ships with weights of between 200,000 and 300,000 tonnes to land.

Dung wanted the investors to concentrate on pushing forward the project, ensuring the quality of the construction, and at the same time supporting the vocational training programmes for local people and for opening universities in the province.

Provincial authorities were required to continue to create favourable conditions and to solve difficulties for the investors if they happened to occur during the project's implementation process.

Authorities needed to focus on site clearance and stabilizing living and production for more than 1,800 households, which had to move to resettlement areas due to the construction.

Dung asked the investors and provincial authorities to arrange jobs for local people who had had to move to resettlement areas in the Iron/Steel Plant and Son Duong Port.

Chairman of Formosa Group Wang Wen Yen said that the project would become the biggest iron and steel complex in all of ASEAN, and become one of the 15 largest plants in the world.

Source: Vietnam News