[NEWS] First US investment in VNese infrastructure

[Dam Son <son@fermi.phys.washington.edu>]

AIG to build 80 million dollar Vietnam industrial park

HANOI (AFP) - American insurance giant AIG is teaming up with
Vietnamese, Thai and Belgian partners to build a 80 million dollar
industrial park in the northern port of Haiphong, a company spokesman
said Thursday.

The group together with its Bangkok-based investment and development
arm Asian Infrastructure Development Ltd. will take a 46.6 percent
stake in the project which was licenced on April 2.

Belgian-based International Port Engineering and Management NV will 
take a 23.4 percent stake while Vietnamese state-owned Haiphong
Transport Engineering Co. (HP Transenco) will take a 30 percent share,
he said.

The project, called the Dinh Vu Economic Zone, is the first US
investment in infrastructure in Vietnam, a spokesman for the joint
venture said.

The new joint venture to build a 164 hectare (405 acre) industrial
park is licenced for 50 years and the first part of a three phase 982
hectare (2,425 acre) project. The next phases, which are not yet  
licenced, will include building a new port and a residential complex.

AIG, the largest US insurance group, has a representative office in
Hanoi but no licence to sell insurance.
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Vietnam Licenses First Phase Of Major Haiphong Port Project

Hanoi (AP, DJ)-- Vietnam has officially licensed the first portion of
what is planned to be a $1.0-billion industrial park and port project
in the northern city of Haiphong, the project's developers said  
Thursday.

The license will allow Dinh Vu Development Joint Venture Co. to
develop a 982-hectare industrial park on a peninsula just outside of
the city, the company said in a statement.

Construction of the $80-million, 164-hectare first phase of the   
industrial park will begin immediately. Lots are expected to be   
available from early in 1998.

The foreign participants in Dinh Vu Development are American
International Group Inc. (aig), the U.S. insurance company; Asian
Infrastructure Development Ltd., a Thai infrastructure concern; and   
International Port & Engineering Management NV, a Belgian port
developer.

Collectively, they hold 70% of the project.

A state-owned company in Haiphong, HP Transenco, holds the other 30%.

The developers of the project hope to capitalize on Haiphong's
position as the principal port of northern Vietnam and also on its
rail links with China's landlocked Yunnan province. 
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