Lee & Man revives pulpy plan
Lee & Man revives pulpy plan
Hau Giang Provincial Industrial Parks Management Authority has agreed to allow leading Hong Kong paper manufacturer Lee & Man to continue developing its much-delayed pulp and packaging paper project in southern province of Hau Giang.
The decision was disclosed to VIR last week by Pham Minh Toan, head of Hau Giang Provincial Industrial Parks Management Authority’s Investment Management Office.
Toan said the authority agreed that the investor should continue work on its first factory, capitalised at $600 million for the first phase with operations commencing in late 2014.
He added that to pursue this project, Lee & Man had to submit a revised plan, including details and deadlines for completing different components of the licenced project and the commitment to hastening implementation.
Lee & Man has plans to build two factories.
“Once Lee & Man finishes their first factory, then the investor can move on to its next factory,” Toan said.
Nguyen Ngoc Dien, deputy head of Hau Giang Provincial Industrial Parks Management Authority, said the local authorities carefully considered the decision, having extended the deadline already, and warned Lee & Man about the adverse impact the delays would have on residents and the province’s future as an improved investment destination.
Previously, the investor requested an extension on its projected completion to the fourth quarter of 2015, an additional two years after the current deadline of late 2013.
The investor has only completed a few segments of the total project thus far - partial site clearance, construction of three warehouses, internal roads, and a small workshop, together valued at $28 million, only 4.4 per cent of its $1.2 billion planned investment.
Lee & Man received its investment certificate in June 2007 to build two factories in Song Hau Industrial Park in Hau Giang, with the estimated output of 150,000 tonnes of pulp and 420,000 tonnes of packaging paper per year. These factories are expected to provide 1,000 jobs to local workers.
Lee & Man is a leading paper manufacturer in China, specialising in linerboard and corrugating medium – containerboard – used in the production of cardboard boxes.
It has four production centres in China and the Hau Giang projects are the company’s first ones outside China.
vir
