Paper industry in Vietnam
Ha Noi, Feb. 3 (VNA) -- Economists forecast that Viet Nam's yearly paper consumption will surge by an average of 10.4 percent to meet the growing demand of about 80-million people between now and 2010.
They say the country will need 870,000 tonnes of paper by 2005 and 1,250,000 tonnes by 2010 making it an ideal market for investors.
The economists quote a Government report saying that it will boost the paper industry in an effort to make it a key economic sector in the next ten years.
Viet Nam will invest more than USD 1,140 million in implementing 15 projects to produce pulp and paper, including USD 9 million to build a 15,000-tonne tissue paper factory at Cau Duong on the outskirts of Ha Noi.
The factory will begin working by 2002.
Other projects are a 130,000-tonne pulp mill in Kon Tum, the Central Highlands, with an investment of USD 244 million; a 10,000-tonne project in Binh Duong, with an investment of USD 12 million, and a 50,000-tonne pulp shredder at Cau Duong with an investment of USD 23 million. It planned to have these facilities working by 2004.
The country will build a 50,000-tonne pulp mill and a 50,000-tonne packing-paper facility in Thanh Hoa province with a combined investment of USD 100 million, both are scheduled to be operating by 2005. It will also build a 100,000-tonne pulp factory in Hoa Binh province with an investment of USD 250 million and make it operational by 2008 and invest USD 450 million to upgrade the Bai Bang paper factory in Vinh Phuc province.
Viet Nam has also unveiled a plan to expand areas earmarked for the paper industry to 1,090,000 ha by 2010 to feed these pulp and paper facilities. It is planned to invest USD 320 million to build three main regions, including a central northern region covering Yen Bai, Tuyen Quang, Phu Tho and Vinh Phuc, to ensure raw materials for Viet Nam's biggest pulp and paper factory Bai Bang.
The second region will be in the northwest and cover Son La, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa and parts of other northwestern provinces to supply the Hoa Binh and Thanh Hoa pulp factories.
The third will be a central southern region covering the Central Highlands, the southeast and central coast to feed the Kon Tum pulp factory and other pulp and paper facilities in Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province.--VNA
