The southern province of Kien Giang is focusing efforts and resources on key infrastructure projects in the island of Phu Quoc to meet the goal of turning the island district into a third-category city by 2015 and a special economic zone by 2020.

A 2.4 trillion VND project to build a 51.5km road running along the North-South axis on the island has disbursed 65.7 percent of investment, while the construction of a 193.8 billion VND road that connects the axis road with the sea, running from Ham Ninh intersection to Suoi Da village, also had almost 60 percent of the workload done.

Meanwhile, the project to build a 100km-long road circling Phu Quoc Island has disbursed 20 percent of the total investment of over 3 trillion VND so far.

At the same time, the laying of a 110 KV undersea cable to bring electricity from Ha Tien town on the mainland to Phu Quoc has seen 350 billion VND out of the total investment of 1.759 trillion VND disbursed.

The provincial authorities has urged Phu Quoc island district to work closely with departments and branches to address difficulties facing investors and contractors.

The province has set up inter-sectoral supervisory groups to help Phu Quoc accelerate the projects, especially newly launched ones and those using official development assistance (ODA) capital and funds from Government bonds, and those listed in the national target programme.

According to the Southwestern Steering Committee, Phu Quoc may fail to fulfil the target of becoming a third-tier urban district by 2015 and a special zone by 2020 as instructed by the Prime Minister, if steps aren’t taken to attract investors soon.-VNA