Speaking at the working session, Mr. Nguyen Van Khanh informed the delegation about the strengths of Yen Bai province in agricultural and forestry development, especially forest development and exploitation and  processing plantation timber. He affirmed that the forest economy plays an important role in the economy of the province. He also highly appreciated the experience of Hoa Phat Industrial Co., Ltd. after more than 3 years of implementing projects related to timber processing from plantation forests in Yen Bai. This is a favorable condition for the Company to join together with Thai Energy Group to continue research and explore investment in Yen Bai.

Mr. Srihasak Ariachakaran - General Director of Thailand Energy Group and Mr. Nguyen Van Huan - Director of Hoa Phat Industrial Co., Ltd said that during the survey, they found that Yen Bai province has a lot of potential for wood development plantation, along with that, at present, the export market has a great demand for slats and export pellets. Therefore, Hoa Phat Industrial Co., Ltd. and Thailand Energy Group will cooperate to invest in the construction of sawn slat mill and export pellet mill with a capacity of about 8,000 m3 of sawn timber per month and 10-15 thousand tons of pellets/month in phase 1. Phase 2 will raise the capacity to 20-30 thousand m3 of sawn timber/month and 30-40 thousand tons of pellets/month. The company guarantees to have a certificate of FSC sustainable forest management standards. The factory is expected to be completed in 2020 and will have export products by 2021; Total investment is about USD 15 million.

The investor expected Yen Bai province to create favorable conditions on land for construction of the project, transport infrastructure to facilitate the transportation of goods for export, as well as administrative procedures for the project to be implemented soon. .

At the woring session, leaders of departments and branches of the province introduced industrial zones in Yen Bai province, conditions for establishing businesses in Yen Bai province, guiding investment registration procedures and said that a support group will be established if businesses have an investment project in Yen Bai.

Mr. Nguyen Van Khanh committed that Yen Bai province would create the best conditions and accompany investors in finalizing relevant legal procedures for investors to implement the project in the time. At the same time, he suggested the investor urgently contracts between the two sides; establish a joint stock company in Yen Bai, soon complete the project and send to provincial departments and branches to appraise for investment policy decisions soon. He proposed investors to support ground clearance funding, together with Tran Yen district, to coordinate closely to solve related issues, especially environmental issues.

Yen Bai also committed to well implement investment incentive policies in accordance with the regulations of the Government of Vietnam and Yen Bai province, and will establish a support group to assist investors in early completion of related procedures to build a factory. He hoped that Thai Energy Group and Hoa Phat Co., Ltd. would cooperate successfully and contribute to the development of Yen Bai province.

At the meeting, Thai Energy Group and Hoa Phat Industrial Co., Ltd. signed an memorandum of Appendix to implement the investment project to build a sawn slat mill and an export pellet factory in Minh Quan industrial park, Tran Yen district.