Pledged Capital into Dung Quat EZ Touches US$5Bln

The Dung Quat Economic Zone (EZ) in central Quang Ngai province, home of Vietnam's first oil refinery, has to date attracted a total registered investment of over US$5 billion for 102 projects, said Tran Le Trung, head of the zone’s management board.

 

Among the projects, 50 per cent are underway while the rest is on the way to complete licensing procedures, Trung said.

 

The zone also boasts five big projects worth billions of dollars. The largest is the Dung Quat Oil Refinery capitalized at $2.5 billion, which is slated to become operational in 2009. It is followed by a steel ingot project by Taiwan's Tycoons Worldwide Group costing more than $1 billion, a $600 million shipbuilding complex designed to make 100,000-350,000 DWT ships, a $300 million post-oil refinery factory by PetroVietnam and a $300 million project by a Korean firm.

 

Investors into the EZ are offered many incentives, such as a five-year exemption of import duties on materials, raw materials and semi-finished products; a preferential corporate income tax of 10 per cent for the first 15 production years and a 50 per cent tax reduction for nine years thereafter (hi-tech projects will enjoy a corporate income tax rate of 10 per cent for the entire project); and a 50 per cent reduction in income tax for high-income earners. 

 

In 2006, Dung Quat EZ, which is expected to become an economic nucleus in central Vietnam by 2015, plans to pay VND400 billion ($25.2 million) to the state coffer and generate jobs for 5,000 people.

 

The zone along with the open economic zones such as Chu Lai in Quang Ngai, Chan May-Lang Co in Thua-Thien Hue and Van Phong in Khanh Hoa, is hoped to be a driving force for the industrialization and modernization of the region in particular and the country as a whole.