The Hindu Business Line : Vietnam woos Indian paper mills for plantations

Vietnam, which offers good opportunities to foreign investors to invest in paper manufacturing and plantation, has initiated moves through the State-owned Vietnam Paper Corporation (VPC) to attract private investment via joint ventures with local and foreign companies.

VPC has reportedly approached some large Indian paper mills to undertake plantation activity for mutual benefit of paper mills of both the countries.

The Indian mills seem to have been approached because a few of them have already begun to scout for plantation opportunities abroad.

Many large Indian mills with substantial expansion plans do not have much information about the adequate supply of virgin pulp locally.

Vietnam, therefore, can be a good destination for them to source virgin pulp.

VPC has plans to expand its resource areas within 2010 in bid to satisfy raw materials demand for paper production of its affiliates.

According to sources in the local paper trade who recently visited Vietnam, VPC has decided to harvest trees on about 135,000 hectares in the central northern region of the country, thereby increasing the availability of forest raw materials to local pulp mills and to ensure sufficient supply of materials to large local mills.

The corporation also has plans to undertake fresh plantation on 10,000 hectares in the central highlands of Kon Tum by 2010.

It currently has a total resource area of more than 105,000 hectares, with an average yield of 80 cubic m per hectare per seven years.

Although Vietnam is not a major paper producing country, VPC has targeted a production of 270,500 tonnes of paper of various kinds by 2007.

The targeted output includes 160,00 tonnes of printing and writing paper, 57 tonnes of newsprint and 10,000 tonnes of tissue paper.

The corporation has called for its affiliates to improved paper quality, diversify products and seek new foreign markets.

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