Quang Ngai Province has licensed an export-oriented wood processing factory, the largest in central Vietnam, and promoted by the Ministry of Trade's Building Material and Construction Company No. 5, at its Dung Quat Industrial Zone. Construction of the VND36.2 billion (US$ 2.4 million) plant, in Binh Son District's Binh Chanh Commune - covering an area of 35,000sq.m - will be divided into two phases, with the first ending in 2004, and the second carried out between 2006 and 2007. In its first stage, costing VND20.11 billion ($1.34 million), the factory will roll out wood shavings and plywood planks for paper and plywood production, besides wooden furniture, while in the second stage the production lines will undergo expansion. The company plans to import most of the equipment for the plant from Taiwan and employ around 400 labourers, 130 of them in the first phase. According to authorities from the Dung Quat Industrial Zone (IZ), the project will enjoy several breaks applicable to the IZ under central and provincial regulations for 2002-05. A series of incentives have been unveiled to lure investment into the central region as a result of which investors have poured nearly $1.4 billion into 21 projects in the IZ. Head of its management board Tran Le Trung said the IZ considered 2003 a breakthrough year in its development. Asia Pulse