The Hindu Business Line : Efforts on to speed up Tata Steel’s Vietnam project

The Indian official delegation accompanying the President, Ms Pratibha Patil, to Vietnam will in its meetings with the Vietnamese leadership in Hanoi seek to expedite the proposed Tata Steel project in Ha Tinh province that has reportedly hit a road block.

The company plans to set up an integrated steel plant that will produce 4.5 million tonnes of steel at an investment of $5 billion over 10 years.

“I have brought some of the outstanding issues raised by Tata Steel to the attention of the leadership of Ho Chi Minh province and will take up the issue with the central Vietnamese political leadership in Hanoi,” Mr Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State for Industry and Commerce, told Business Line in Hanoi.

It is learnt that the delay is due to a Taiwanese steel manufacturing company also seeking allotment of the same land for its project. A joint venture partnership was signed between Tata Steel and the Vietnam Steel Corporation in August.

Tata Steel has a 65 per cent stake in the project and a 30 per cent equity stake in an iron ore mining project in Vietnam’s Thach Khe area. An allocation of 1,300 acres was made, and the company is awaiting the investment licence and land allotment from the Government.

“The project is the largest single-location greenfield foreign investment for any corporate to date,” Mr Indronil Sengupta, Chief Executive, South East Asia Projects for Tata Steel, told Business Line.

“We are looking forward to getting the land in the next couple of months and thereafter start project implementation.”

There are “endless opportunities” for Indian companies in South East Asia once the Agreement of Trade in Goods with Asean is signed, Mr Kumar said.

“India’s current annual trade with Vietnam of $1.8 billion will see an increase of $2-3 billion in India’s exports and about $7 billion in Asean’s exports to India over the next few years,” he said.

The Indian President’s meeting with Mr Nong Duc Manh, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, President Nguyen Minh Triet, and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung “will focus on concrete issues that include the building of a conducive atmosphere for mega Indian investments in Vietnam,” he said.

He would also be taking up the Bank of India’s request for permission to establish a branch in Vietnam.

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