VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of huge projects which were halted due to the foreign investors’ financial problems, have been restarted, which is believed to help warm up the national economy.

Dau tu has quoted its sources as saying that VinaCapital, an investment fund, on January 8, 2013, had a working session with the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone’s Board of Management on the US$4 billion Nam Hoi An urban area project.

At the working session, VinaCapital introduced its new partner in the project who will replace Malaysian Genting Malaysia Berhard – the investor who has withdrawn from the project.

Meanwhile, VnExpress has reported that Thai PTT Group has registered its investment in the petrochemical oil refinery complex in the Nhon Hoi Economic Zone in Binh Dinh province, expressing its willingness to kick start the project in 2016. The newspaper said the pre-feasibility study has been submitted to the Prime Minister.

These seem to be the latest happenings of the project. Prior to that, in December 2012, the Binh Dinh provincial authorities reported to the Prime Minister about the investment project. However, doubts have been raised about the project’s feasibility, because the investment capital is overly high, at $27 billion.

However, Ho Quoc Dung, Deputy Chair of Binh Dinh province on January 12 told VnExpress that the local authorities have received the commitments from PTT that it is financially capable enough to implement the mammoth project, and that the local authorities believe the investor – an economic group of the Thai government with the total assets of up to $50 billion.

After a period of interruption due to the financial problems in the global economic crisis, a lot of multi-billion dollar projects have restarted again. These include the West-West Lake ($2.5 billion), Ho Tram Strip ($4 billion), Formosa ($9.8 billion). Especially, Tokyu Binh Duong, who has just received the investment registration certificate, has immediately started the construction.

The first phase of the MGM Grand Ho Tram, the first resort in the complex of five integrated resorts, was completed in December 2012 already, sooner than initially expected.

Lloyd Nathan, Managing Director of Asian Coast Development Ltd, the investor of the Ho Tram Strip project, has confirmed the opening of the first phase in early 2013 and the commitment to pour $4 billion into the project in the next 10 years.

Regarding the huge steel project China Steel Sumikin capitalized at $1.15 billion in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province, an official of the provincial board of management of industrial zones said the project would become operational in the first half of 2013.

He affirmed that the construction of the steel mill has been completed, while machines and equipments are being installed. Once put into operation, the steel mill would create 1,200 jobs and churn out 1.6 million tons of steel.

Meanwhile, a lot of other multi-billion dollar projects still remain “immovable.” A report showed that 24 foreign invested projects capitalized at one billion dollars at least licensed since 2007.

Of these, many have seen licenses revoked; including the Ca Na steel complex ($9.8 billion), Bai Bien Rong ($4 billion), Nam Phu Yen Creative City ($1.68 billion) and Wonder Land Park ($1.3 billion), while there has been no information about the remaining projects.

These include the Vung Ro oil refinery with the investment capital of $3.1 billion. People once heard that the project was kicked off after the signing ceremony of the contract on technology license and overall technical design with UOP LLC, belonging to the US A HoneyWell Group in August 2012. However, the project still has not been started so far.

Compiled by C. V