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Vietnam assigns government team to resolve $5 billion Tata plant deadlock
Vietnam set up a group of central and provincial officials to help resolve land clearance and compensation issues that have delayed the construction of Tata Steel Ltd. (TATA)’s $5 billion project in the country.
The group aims to work with officials at Tata Steel, India’s largest producer of the alloy, to come up with a solution within a month, Vice Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong said in an interview in Hanoi.
“It’s still a priority project,” Dong said yesterday. “Both parties have to come up with a realistic solution.”
Tata Steel first signed an agreement with Vietnam Steel Corp. in May 2007 to develop a plant with an output capacity of about 4.5 million metric tons a year in coastal Ha Tinh province. The Indian company, which has operations in Africa, Europe and Australia, estimated the first phase of the project would be completed by the end of 2010, according to a 2008 press release.
The Mumbai-based steelmaker is still awaiting Vietnam’s approval for the plant, spokesman Prabhat Sharma said on Aug. 22. The government is working with Tata Steel to push forward the project, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said on May 3.
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