VietNamNet Bridge – Though the Dung Quat Economic Zone (EZ) attracts 10 new investment projects every year, the same number of licenses are revoked each year.

Dung Quat EZ was once considered an ideal investment destination when it was opened years ago by the Quang Ngai provincial authorities.

However, except for a few profitable projects, others have been left half-finished.

Investors’ regrets

The Dung Quat EZ Management Board has granted investment licenses to 115 projects which have total registered capital of $8 billion. Of these, 70 projects have become operational, creating 14,000 local jobs.

However, most of the area in the EZ remains fallow land because of the lack of investors. Van Tuong City, the only city in Vietnam put under the management of  commune authorities, has been left idle over many years. Many investors registered to develop projects there, but have not begun the projects.

Dozens of half-finished construction works can be seen in Dung Quat, which have been left idle.

One of them is a complex of hotel, restaurant and amusement park in Van Tuong City. The investor reportedly spent nearly VND100 billion on the project, but then stopped the construction.

The huge Guang Lian steel complex project with registered capital of $4.5 billion, has also been “immovable” over the last few years, The fate of the project is unclear.

Tran Hong Minh, the investor of the hotel – restaurant – entertainment park complex in Van Tuong City, said he decided to stop project implementation after realizing that there were few people and businesses there.

“We will go bankrupt if we have to spend hundreds of billions of dong to build the complex and then have no clients,” Minh said. “We know that we made a wrong decision when registering the investment project.”

Golden land wasted

Many investors have been allocated land to develop projects. However, analysts noted that many of the investors registered just to “take the place”, and hope they can transfer the projects later to other investors to get money.

At first, the Taiwanese Tycoons Group was licensed as an investor to develop the Guang Lian steel project, capitalized at $1 billion. Later, the investor transferred the project to a Japanese group. However, the new investor has decided to stop the project.

Pham Nhu So, deputy chair of the Quang Ngai provincial people’s committee, by July 2014, said the local authorities had revoked licenses granted to 12 projects in Dung Quat EZ that have not been implemented.

Thanh Lich