New Delhi (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had separate meetings in New Delhi on July 31 with representatives of leading Indian groups specialising in infrastructure and pharmacy, calling on them to invest in big, high-tech projects in Vietnam, as part of his ongoing state visit to India.
Meeting Gautam Adani, Chairman and Founder of Adani Group that is operating in infrastructure, transport and energy, the PM lauded the business’s operation in Vietnam over the past years as well as its expansion plan in the time ahead.
Chinh briefed Adani on major strategic breakthroughs implemented in Vietnam to spur socio-economic development, covering institutions, infrastructure and personnel training, and affirmed that Vietnam will create all possible conditions for foreign investors to join essential infrastructure projects in expressway, airport, seaport, high-speed railway, metro, and logistics.
He called on the group to land investments and bring cutting-edge, new, high, clean technology and modern administration in (to) Vietnam, connecting the country with global production and supply chains.
Adani said his firm has invested in Lien Chieu Port in Vietnam’s central city of Da Nang with about 2 billion USD, noting it wishes to engage in energy projects in the central province of Binh Thuan, specifically Vinh Tan 3 Thermal Power Plant with a total investment of around 2.8 billion USD, cooperate with Vietnam’s SOVICO Group in Chu Lai and Long Thanh airport projects, and build a logistics centre in the Southeast Asian nation.
Regarding the Lien Chieu Port project, which is encountering some procedure obstacles due to investment adjustments, Chinh urged the group to coordinate with the Da Nang People’s Committee, the Vietnamese Ministry of Transport and relevant agencies and localities to handle them.
For energy cooperation, the PM suggested the group continue working with the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Vietnam Electricity and other relevant ministries, agencies and localities in this regard.
The Vietnamese Government always supports and stands ready to create favourable conditions for both domestic and foreign enterprises to operate, including those from India, the leader affirmed.
On this occasion, the PM also met representatives from the joint venture of SMS Pharmaceuticals Ltd and Sri Avantika Contractors operating in mining, pharmacy, infrastructure and trade, among other fields. In Vietnam, the two set up a joint venture with a local firm to build a pharmaceutical industrial park in the Nghi Son Economic Zone in the central province of Thanh Hoa.
Ramesh Babu, Chairman and Managing Director of SMS Pharmaceuticals Ltd, and Narendra Reddy, Managing Director of Sri Avantika Contractors, highly valued Vietnam’s investment environment, and called for the Government’s support to and approval of the joint venture’s projects.
Specifically, the joint venture needs about 500 hectares to build a pharmaceutical park in Vietnam, with an investment capital of from 700 million to 1 billion USD in the first phase, which would increase to 4-5 billion USD after 10-12 years, they said.
In response, the PM spoke highly of its plans for cooperation, investment and technology transfer in Vietnam in the time ahead, and suggested it hold working sessions with the Vietnamese Ministry of Health and other ministries, agencies and localities to materialise the plans, thus building a pharmaceutical industry ecosystem in Vietnam, serving both domestic and foreign markets.
Chinh also held a working session with Dharmesh Shah, Chairman and Founder of BDR Group, another name in India’s pharmaceutical industry, which opened its representative office in Vietnam in 2022 and is providing materials for cancer drug production to a number of factories in the Southeast Asian nation.
Shah suggested the PM give instructions to speed up the approval of the licence for the distribution of drugs against certain types of cancer such as prostate and breast cancer in the Vietnamese market, saying the group wants to cooperate in drug production and technology transfer, and help Vietnamese drug manufacturing facilities that have been granted the GMP certificate meet EU-GMP and WHO-GMP standards, while building a data centre in the country.
The PM asked the group to coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies in Vietnam to put in place specific cooperation projects and programmes./.
