Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his cabinet entourage has on 19 July 2008 met with Quang Ngai provincial key leaders during his brief visit to this province, revieing the construction schedules of Vietnam’s first ever oil refinery-Dung Quat.
Premier Dung seemed much happy to learn Quang Ngai economic growth for the first 6 months of the year kept on steadily going up in the conext the whole country was facing fast gallop inflation and economic stagnancy.
According to a report presented by the provincial top leader, Chairman Nguyen Xuan Hue, to the Prime Minister, Quang Ngai’s key economic statistics for the first half of 2008 seemed very promising: the provincia revenue estimated at VND 673 billion, industrial production value of some VND 1,400 billion, export turnover of USD 32 million, most of the figures showed their respective increases in comparison with the same period last year.
Regarding Dung Quat Economic Zone (DQEZ), the Premier affirmed its launching-pad role for not only Quang Ngai but also the whole central region to take off, gradually catching up with either north or south region of Vietnam.
In response to the Quang Ngai’s proposal for expansion of DQEZ, the Premier said he would be willing to support if the necessity was well justified. He would also ask relevant ministries to take it into consideration prior to the government’s decision.
Earlier the day, Nguyen Tan Dung had toured the Dung Quat Refinery site, and peptalked the over 10,000 labourers toiling in brilliant sunshine as if they had wanted to turn back the clock just to arrive on time, t
o put the refinery into operation by February 2009.
Dung highly appreciated the fruitful efforts by the project owner as well as general contractor in pushing the construction up to be on time despite harsh weather of the burning summer with daily average temperature of seldom less than 300C.
The Premier was reported on site by PetroVietnam (Vietnam Oil and Gas Group) that the overall schedules of the refinery project had been so far 95% completed, in which engineering designs fully completed, procurement some 99.7%, and construction and installation about 84%.
The Premier strongly requested local authorities and relevant agencies to work closely in coordination with the contractor for its punctual arrival.
Reportedly, this refinery, now still under construction, would be upgraded to run its capacity of 10 million tons of crude oil per year instead of 6.5 million as designed. The proposal was said to have been submitted by PetroVietnam to the premier for approval.
M.T
