South Korean steel giant POSCO said Tuesday it had no immediate plans to drop a planned 12-billion-dollar plant in India even as deadly protests against other projects cast doubt on their future.
"As of now, we don't have any intention to withdraw from India. We are definitely determined to continue with this project," a senior POSCO official, who did not wish to be identified, told AFP.
"We don't have any plan to withdraw in the near future." While repeating that the company intended to press ahead, the official also said, without specifying a timeframe, that if "we have to wait for much longer than we expected in India (on the project) then we might think of terminating at some point in the future."
The statement came after local reports that POSCO was considering shifting its focus to another low-cost Asian country such as Vietnam. "With too many problems dogging the POSCO project in the state, the South Korean steel major is reportedly planning to shift its focus to Vietnam, where it has proposed a steel plant," a report in the Times of India said Tuesday.
The official said POSCO was "very much concerned" about an incident last week when police in the eastern state of West Bengal shot dead 14 villagers opposing the forced sale of their land for an industrial area.
The state was hoping to turn the land into a special economic zone (SEZ) to house a huge petrochemicals project built by an Indonesian firm. India has since said it will "refine" the controversial policy, which offers firms enclaves of modern infrastructure, tax breaks and other benefits.
POSCO signed an agreement with neighbouring Orissa state that granted it almost 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) for its largest overseas investment in 2005 - the same year India launched its China-inspired SEZs. The POSCO project is also India's biggest single foreign direct investment. However, just a month before construction is slated to start, the company has yet to get its land and local villagers are also protesting.
"The situation is not good right now," said the official. "We expect we are going to face the same particular kind of difficulty in acquiring the land." The official also said the Orissa project was about six months behind schedule.
"We want the state government of Orissa to move a little faster," he said. But ore-rich Orissa, which also allotted almost 20,000 acres to the world's largest steelmaker Arcelor Mittal in December, may have its hands tied. Last January 13 villagers were shot dead in a protest against the construction of a Tata steel complex, leading to the blockading of the state's main highway for more than a year. The official noted the company was pursuing investments in Vietnam alongside its plans in India.
"We are pushing some projects in Vietnam - that is true - but at the same time we are pushing through this project in India," he said. "We are pursuing both projects at the same time." The official said the company was relying on the state government to complete the land acquisition but POSCO was trying to appeal to locals as well to get them on board with the project.
"We have opened several health camps. We already set up training camps for jobs for locals," he said. "We are doing everything we can do to change local people's minds."
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