The Vietnam Construction Import-Export Corporation (Vinaconex) has signed with three foreign banks a credit agreement worth Euro 76m for the procurement of equipment for Vietnam ’s largest cement plant.   Under the agreement reached between Vinaconex and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the two French banks of SG and BNPPARIBAS in Hanoi on Mar 28, the Vietnamese partner will buy equipment worth Euro 36m from Japan’s Kawasaki group via JBIC.  

Through the SG and BNPPARIBAS banks, the corporation will import equipment worth Euro 40m from Germany’s: Fam, Haver, Boecker and Loesche groups and Switzerlands’s ABB company for the 2.3Mta Cam Pha plant.  Construction of the plant, estimated to cost VND4,739 billion (approx US$300m), is expected to start in mid-2005.   In the meantime, Vinaconex and other contractors are accelerating the construction of auxiliary works, including a grinding station, a raw material storage facility, and an on-site communications system.  Vinaconex General Director Nguyen Van Tuan said the corporation is striving to put the Cam Pha grinding station into operation before April 2006.