Posted on 06 Aug 2014
Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Company has promised to speed up the implementation pace of its steel complex in Ha Tinh Province after suffering considerable damage during the worker protests in mid-May against China's illegal deployment of a giant oil rig in Vietnamese waters.
Wang Wen Xiang, an executive at Formosa Ha Tinh, told reporters in Hanoi on July 31 that as of June the company had disbursed US$4.2 billion out of the US$10 billion it pledged for the first phase of the project.
The Taiwanese investor is expected to inject an additional US$2.1 billion later this year before commissioning the first and the second blast furnaces in May 2015 and June 2016 respectively.
Wang recounted on May 14 when the protests occurred, there were 26,000 laborers working for contractors on the construction site. The number included 900 Taiwanese people and 3,600 Vietnamese people working directly for Formosa.
However, there are now only 19,000 laborers at the moment and the number is much lower than the 30,000 people as planned by the investor. "We are trying our best to regain the previous implementation pace as the slower the project is, the more we suffer," he said.
At the press briefing, Wang also explained to the issues of public attention. Concerning the ownership of the project, Wang said nearly 95% of the Formosa Ha Tinh is owned by Formosa Group and its subsidiaries and a nearly 5% stake is held by China Steel, a Taiwanese steel maker.
He added that China Steel has joined hands with Japan's Sumitomo in a steel project in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.
As for the participation of Chinese contractors in construction of blast furnaces, Wang clarified Formosa had looked around the world and found that no countries have built blast furnaces in the past ten years except for China. "So we had to pick Chinese contractors," he said.
Responding to a question that a Taiwanese leader once said on BBC that Vietnam was not honest in compensating the protest-hit Taiwanese companies, Wang said he did not know about this. He added Formosa is a private group and decides where to invest.
Wang said the company wants to thank Vietnam's Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers for their words that Formosa is considered a local company when it invests in Ha Tinh, and there is no discrimination. "This has made us moved," he said.
Wang said the company highly appreciates the efforts of the Government and Ha Tinh Province to restore security and help construction at the project resume early.
