The Prime Minister has given the Ministry of Finance permission to provide a guarantee for a VND1.5 trillion ($93.75m) loan to finance the ongoing construction of Song Thao cement plant in northern Phu Tho province.

The loan comes from the French-based PNB Paribas.

The project’s investors are the Housing and Urban Development Corp., Vietnam Machinery Installation Corp. and Phu Tho Cement Co.

Vietnam’s cement industry will need $3.4bn of investment capital to satisfy burgeoning demand for cement by 2010.

Currently, some 30 cement projects with a total capacity of 35Mt are being carried out in the country.

Vietnam is estimated to need 35.6Mt of cement this year. Last year, the national demand for cement reached 32.5Mt.
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