Industry ministry reports positive signs in 12 loss-making projects

Director of the MoIT’s Planning Department Duong Duy Hung said among those which have resumed operation, two projects have reported some profit, which are the Viet Trung steel plant with VND419 billion (US$18.3 million) in profit in 2017 and the DAP Vinachem with tens of billions of VND in profit.

Four other projects of the Vietnam National Chemical Group have been able to operate at more stable capacity, thus remarkably reducing their accumulated losses. Among projects of PetroVietnam, the Dinh Vu Polyester plant resumed operation of three production chains in April this year.

The most remarkable point is that the projects resumed operation without using any additional capital from the State budget, in line with the principle set by the Politburo and the Government for the handling of loss-making projects, the director stressed.

Furthermore, nearly VND1 trillion (US$43.6 million) of State capital in the Thai Nguyen steel plant project has been retrieved, Hung said. Regarding outstanding problems, Hung said disputes in EPC contracts of those projects are slow to be solved, despite the initial plan of completing the work in the first quarter of this year.

According to the official, the ministry will continue to reshuffle production and corporation administration at projects with good progress such as the fertilizer plants, while cutting more costs and labour for higher productivity.

He stressed that the ministry will closely follow the instruction of the Politburo, roadmaps approved by the Prime Minister and plans of actions of the Steering Committee in dealing with those projects in the time ahead, adding that it is hoped that problems at the projects will be solved completely by 2020.