SBIC calls for consortium to build solar power plant
Vietnam’s state-run Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (SBIC) expressed interest in co-operating with Foxconn to develop a 200 megawatt solar power plant in South Cam Ranh industrial zone (IZ), in the central province of Khanh Hoa.
Accordingly, SBIC has proposed the Khanh Hoa People’s Committee not to revoke the investment certificate of the long-delayed South Cam Ranh IZ, so that SBIC can carry out negotiations with HC Global Joint Stock Company (HCG) to join the solar power plant. According to SBIC’s design, the plant is to be implemented by a consortium of Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, HCG, and Clean Energy JSC.
However, no further information on the solar power project has been disclosed for now.
South Cam Ranh IZ, invested by Nha Trang Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., was licensed in March 2009 with the total investment capital of VND980 billion ($43.9 million). However, the construction has yet to be implemented due to the investor’s financial troubles.
Khanh Hoa has been considering revoking the project’s investment certificate since 2012, due to its long delay in construction.
In 2007, Foxconn announced that it would invest $5 billion in Vietnam to help draw the country into the global supply chain. At the time, the Taiwanese company signed a cooperation framework with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, pledging to invest in a series of projects in the hi-tech sector and supporting industries. Foxconn was also linked to investment agreements in Ho Chi Minh City, Haiphong, Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Vinh Phuc, and Binh Dinh.
Foxconn kick-started its Vietnamese investments by opening two factories, worth $160 million in total, in Bac Ninh’s Que Vo industrial park. In 2008, they were licensed to build a $200-million smart phone production facility in Vinh Phuc. It also built plans to construct facilities in Bac Giang. A $1-billion IP on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City was also on the menu. However, these ambitious investment plans seemed to fizzle out when Foxconn’s Vinh Phuc project had its investment licence revoked in 2015. Meanwhile, the hi-tech project in Bac Ninh went bankrupt, and the fate of Foxconn’s other investment commitments in Binh Dinh, Haiphong, and Ho Chi Minh City remain unclear.
In its latest move, Foxconn spent $22 million on acquiring Microsoft’s Bac Ninh phone plant where it’s going to produce feature phones and smartphones. The facility started operation in October 2013. It has area of 65,400 square metres and capacity of 15,000 units per day.
Source: VIR
