Sucrerie Bourbon - Tay Ninh Summary Of Project Information (SPI)       Project Name    Viet Nam-Sucrerie Bourbon - Tây Ninh            Region    Asia        Sector       Project No004810   Projected Board DateFebruary 28, 1996   Company NameSucrerie Bourbon - Tây Ninh (SBT), Ltd.   Technical Partner and/or Major Shareholders    	The main sponsor is Groupe des Societes de Bourbon (GSB), a family owned company based in Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean. GSB started operations in 1948 with a sugar refinery, among the first in Réunion. The project is co-sponsored by two Vietnamese companies: Vinasugar, a State-owned enterprise, whose mandate is the development of the sugar industry in Southern Viet Nam, and Tanisugar, a province-owned enterprise in Tây Ninh whose main operation is the production and trade of sugar. GSB would own 70% of the voting shares and the two Vietnamese companies 15% each.    Project Cost Including proposed IFC investment    	Total project cost is estimated at US$95 million. IFC is considering a US$42.0 million investment in SBT, of which US$22.0 million for IFCs own account (the IFC A Loan) and US$20.0 million for participants accounts (the IFC B Loan).     Location of project and Description of site    	The proposed sugar mill is to be built on a 32 ha site located about 25 km north of the city of Tây Ninh. The land will be excised from the Tan Hung state farm which is presently producing sugar cane and manioc. The topography of the area is flat with a slight, less than 1%, slope to the south west. Preliminary soil tests show this to be a relatively homogeneous site with an adequate load bearing capacity of 12 tons per square meter; some piling will be required for more massive structures but this is not expected to exceed 20 meters.    	The site is 6 km from the main provincial road to Tây Ninh and the access road will be upgraded to an all-weather standard. In addition the provincial government has agreed to construct a new north-south district road to improve access to the site for cane transport. Sugar will be evacuated to Ho Chi Minh City by way of the Vàm Cò Dong River using barges. This route will also be used to import the larger items of machinery. Project plans call for the construction of a jetty and 1,000 m2 warehouse on a site which has been acquired some 15 km south east of Tây Ninh.    Description of Company and Purpose of Project    	The Company will construct a sugar refinery to produce 100,000 tpy of sugar to international quality standards and meet anticipated growth in demand in the country. Currently, Viet Nam imports over 20% of its sugar requirements of about 500,000 tpy, from Thailand and China. Sugar consumption in Viet Nam is constrained by product availability.    	The economic fundamentals of the refining operation favor local production of sugar over importation of the finished product and the Government has a policy of supporting and enhancing the viability of the sugar industry which will make the country self sufficient in sugar. Under its Master Plan Study, the Government has estimated that sugar production will have to increase to 1 million tons per year by the year 2000 in order to meet domestic requirements. The introduction of modern sugar production technology is therefore a key element in the Governments strategy to increase sugar production in Viet Nam. The area currently planted with sugar cane in Viet Nam would allow increasing sugar production from 325,000 tpy to 655,000 tpy, thus moving towards the Governments goal of reaching 1 million tpy of sugar by 2000. Project completion is estimated for December 1997. The project would operate during the sugarcane harvest season which lasts about five months (December-April) in Tây Ninh province. During this period, waste and residue will be used to fuel a power plant with a capacity of 24 MW, to be used by Sucrerie Bourbon - Tây Ninh (SBT).    Environmental Category and Issues    	This is a category B project according to IFCs environmental review procedure. Environmental, health and safety issues include site location, air emissions, liquid effluent, and solid waste management. Occupational health and safety issues include fire safety and emergency response, and general employee health and safety. The facilitys site is now part of  a state-owned farm. It is about 4.5 km from the nearest village and there are no concentrations of people residing in the immediate vicinity. People living on the state farm are expected to produce sugar cane for SBT because it would be the most profitable activity. However, should they prefer different activities, they would be free to do so. The factory design incorporates the latest state of the art wet scrubbing of flue gases to eliminate particulate emissions which are the most objectionable feature of older sugar mill chimneys. Liquid effluent will receive primary and secondary treatment and will comply with local requirements and World Bank guidelines. Solid wastes from the process will be used to generate electricity. The facility will use fire protection codes, work instructions and employee training programs. IFC will ensure ongoing compliance with World Bank guidelines during the life of the project by evaluating monitoring reports submitted annually to IFC by SBT and by conducting periodic supervision.    The  is available from the Public Information Center.           Date SPI sent to PIC     February 7, 1996      For Additional Information contact:  Corporate Relations Unit -   telephone: (202) 473-7711   facsimile: (202) 676-0365  Environmental documents for this project are available at http://www.ifc.org and from the World Bank InfoShop (http://www.worldbank.org/html/pic/aboutinfo.html).