The Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) will provide the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) with a 220 million USD loan to build the Ca Mau nitrogenous fertiliser plant.

The contract was signed by the bank and the PVN in Hanoi on Sept. 25.

The 800,000 tonne per year plant will be built in Khanh An commune, U Minh district in the southernmost province of Ca Mau and cost 900 million USD.

The contractors, the WEC-CMC Group from China, will carry out the project under the Engineering-Procurement-Construction formula, to enable the plant to start running commercially by the second quarter of 2012.

Earlier this year Vietinbank also provided PVN with a 200 million USD loan for the Dung Quat Oil Refinery in April.

As one of Vietnam’s biggest banks, Vietinbank has reserved a large amount of its capital to finance the nation’s major projects.

For the power sector alone, Vietinbank has pledged to provide more than 20 trillion VND for the construction of the Uong Bi and Phu My thermo-electric power stations and the Quang Tri and Pleikrong hydro-electric power stations.

Coupled with that, the bank has provided the oil and gas sector with credit for several large-scale projects, including the Dung Quat Oil Refinery, the Nam Con Son gas pipeline and projects to develop the Lan Tay and Lan Do oilfields.

At present, Vietinbank is mulling over a plan to open several branches overseas, with the first one to be set up in Germany in 2010.

According to the bank, it has established ties with 850 banks around the world and is a member of the Asian Bankers Association, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications and a number of e-payment card organisations.

It is the founder of and a partner in Vietnam’s first joint venture bank – Indovinabank, with Taiwan ’s Cathay United bank.

It is expected to sign a contract with the Phu My Joint Stock Company (PMC) to arrange the credit package for the construction of a tunnel through the Ca Pass in Phu Yen province.

Recently, Vietinbank and PMC worked with Australia’s Baulderston Group and Germany’s Bilfinger Berger groups to establish cooperative ties and arrange loans for PMC’s projects./.