VietNamNet Bridge – Chinese contractors at the Thuong Kon Tum hydropower plant have threatened to stop the project, citing problems in worker recruitment.

The Chinese contractors on July 22 sent a notice to the project investor, the Vinh Son – Song Hinh Hydropower JSC, informing them of their decision to stop the execution of one of the package deals of the project.

Explaining the decision, the contractors said they were meeting many problems implementing the construction. They cannot find a sufficient number of local workers for the project, and many Chinese companies in Vietnam have had to halt their business.

Vo Thanh Trung, general director of the Vinh Son – Song Hinh Hydropower JSC, said in Dat Viet on July 24 that the Chinese contractors had not stopped the execution yet. However, they complained that they were facing some problems.

“They (the Chinese contractors) have just expressed their intention. I think the two sides will sit together to negotiate about the matter,” Trung said.

However, Trung said, if the Chinese contractors stop the execution as they warn, this will in no way affect project implementation, because the package deal is just a small component of the project.

Earlier, on July 22, Huynh An, deputy head of the Thuong Kon Tum hydropower project management board told the local press that the board and the Chinese contractors were discussing terminating the contract.

Under the contract signed between the project investor and the Chinese contractors in October 2010, the contractors were to implement some items of the project with the total construction and installation value of VND1.6 trillion and fulfill the execution within 42 months.

The Chinese contractors won the bid to implement the package deal over the Vietnamese joint contractors CMS-Cavico Vietnam-PECC3.

They won the bid because they offered the price which was just half of the price offered by the Vietnamese joint contractors. CMS-Cavico Vietnam-PECC3’s offered price was VND3.614 trillion.

The Chinese workers committed to recruit 100 foreign workers at maximum and follow the investor’s request on hiring sub-contractors.

However, Nguoi lao dong on July 23 quoted Vo Thanh Trung of the Vinh Son – Song Hinh Hydropower JSC as saying that the Chinese contractors deliberately delayed the construction while demanding higher prices.

A report of the company showed that only a small part of the workload had been fulfilled by June 2014.

Meanwhile, Dao Xuan Quy, Deputy Secretary of the Kon Tum provincial Communist Party’s Committee, said the hydropower plant would incur a loss of revenue of VND1-1.2 trillion for every year of delay.

“I am sure that the plant will not be able to become operational by 2015,” he said.

This incident has reminded people of the Duyen Hai 3 thermopower plant project. The fact that China Chengda Engineering was allowed to recruit 2,100 workers for the power plant raised strong opposition from the public.

While the Chinese contractor said that the 2,100 Chinese laborers were technically skilled workers, analysts believe most of them were untrained laborers.

Dat Viet