Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc finished his six-day officialvisit to Australia on April 13 and he left for New Zealand.
Earlier, Deputy PM Phuc, who is also chairman of Vietnam’s Committeefor HIV/AIDS, Drugs and Prostitution Control, attended a presentationof Australian specialists on their experiences in using methadoneduring drug detoxification and the role played by communities inpreventing HIV.
He also received Paul Lorry, theGeneral Director of the OGL Resources Company, which supplies coal toVietnam ’s southern thermoelectric power stations and James Burger, theDirector of Exploration at Rio Tinto, Australia ’s leading mininggroup.
When meeting with the OGL leader, Phucapplauded the company’s decision to invest in a deepwater harbour in theMekong Delta region, capable of accommodating 100,000 tonne vessels.
He also stated that the Vietnamese government hasclear policies on building thermoelectric power stations in the southernprovinces that use imported coal and supports the construction of a seahabour with a loading capacity of 40 million tines of cargoes in theMekong Delta.
Burger said that the company will spend 1 billion USD to build the deepwater harbour under the Build-Operate (BO) format.
At a reception for the Rio Tinto Director, Deputy PM Phuc praised thegroup’s plans to invest in Vietnam ’s mining industry.
RioTinto, with its world leading technologies and transparent miningpolicies, will help Vietnam address its mining industry’s currentproblems, he said.
Phuc also suggested that RioTinto study the possibilities of mining for other raw materials inVietnam other than bauxite . VNA