The Vietnamese government is criticizing GS Engineering & Construction for a delay in the construction of the country’s Vam Cong Bridge, according to recent reports from Vietnamese media.
GS E&C won the 239.4 billion won ($218 million) project to construct the bridge across the Hau River in June 2013, jointly with Hanshin Engineering & Construction.
During recent inspections, Vietnamese Transportation Minister Dinh La Thang urged the two Korean builders to speed up work in order to meet the completion date, according to Dan Tri International, a Vietnamese daily.
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| A bird’s eye view of the Vam Cong Bridge in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, Vietnam. (GS E&C) |
The minister also pointed out that the contractors had been consistently behind schedule on a previous project to build the Hanoi-Haiphong Highway.
He warned the builders against “repeating their mistakes” with the Vam Cong Bridge, which is slated for completion by September 2017, Dan Tri International reported.
The claims come as Korean construction companies are avidly searching for more overseas projects to help prop up the sector, which has been hit by a prolonged economic recession both at home and abroad.
GS E&C officials denied that the bridge project was being delayed.
“Supervisors at the construction site have informed us that the pace is actually faster than planned,” said one GS E&C official.
The builder admitted, however, that construction of the Hanoi-Haiphong highway was falling far behind schedule.
“The Hanoi highway was supposed to be completed by 2011 but we are still working on it due to poor construction conditions,” the official said.
Vietnam is one of the largest clients for GS E&C, which has been commissioned to construct housing complexes and transportation infrastructure such as roads and railways.
Thanks to these and other projects, GS E&C was named the second biggest earner in terms of overseas construction orders, according to the International Contractors Association of Korea. The biggest earner was Hyundai E&C.
In the second quarter of this year, GS E&C made a dramatic turnaround by posting an operating profit of 11 billion won. In 2013, it had recorded a loss of nearly 1 trillion won.
By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)
