Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ (r) receives Hiroshi Sakuma, Executive Vice President at Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation yesterday. — Photo VGP

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ hosted a reception for Hiroshi Sakuma, Executive Vice President at Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation yesterday. Hiroshi Sakuma affirmed that Mitsubishi was investing in two BOT thermal power projects in Việt Nam: Vũng Áng 2 with a designed capacity of 1,200MW and Vĩnh Tân 3 with a designed capacity of 1,980MW.

Việt Nam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and Mitsubishi signed an investment agreement in early 2017, including land lease and power purchase contracts.

Mitsubishi expected that the Vietnamese Government would soon resolve bottlenecks related to tax incentives in order to put the projects into operation, thus increasing the electricity supply capacity for the Vietnamese market, he said.

In addition to these thermal power projects, Mitsubishi planned to invest in an electric car manufacturing factory in Việt Nam, he added, noting that the Japanese corporation was evaluating the feasibility of the project. It was looking forward to new regulations on environmental protection taxes in order to speed up investment in the factory.

Deputy PM Huệ hailed Mitsubishi’s business dealings and investment in energy, infrastructure, trade and services, affirming that power projects were of national significance in Việt Nam.

The Vietnamese Government attached great interest to the Vũng Áng 2 thermal power project and had already agreed on the foreign currency conversion of this project, he said.

He hoped Mitsubishi would continue the necessary work for the two sides to sign cooperation agreements on implementing the projects Vũng Áng 2 and Vĩnh Tân 3 by October 2018 during Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc’s visit to Japan. Việt Nam hoped that Mitsubishi would promptly decide to invest in the electric car project, he noted.

The National Assembly of Việt Nam would discuss and approve the draft law on environmental protection tax in the near future, he said, adding that there would be incentives to reward environmentally friendly products. –VNS