PT GROWTH ASIA

Part of the Growth Steel Group, PT Growth Asia manufactures a wide range of high-quality products, from steel liners and rubber liners to fasteners and grinding media, supplying the mining sectors.

The company operates with a vision to grow a prosperous world by supplying quality products and excellent service sustainably to global industry.

Set up in 1989, PT Growth Asia has since grown with manufacturing plants in Medan in Northern Sumatera,Indonesia and Suzhou, China with additional sales offices located in the likes of Australia, South Africa, Ghana, Peru, Chile and China and distributors in USA and CIS.

E enquiry@growthsteel.com www.growthsteel.com

“Since the early stages of our operations, Masan Resources has striven to work with our nearby communities to help them develop through participation in the ESIA, Resettlement Action Plan, yearly community development plans, and other environmental and social initiatives,” he continues.

“We started by together identifying the main challenges that the communities were facing as a result of mine operations and involuntary resettlement, as well as maximising the benefits and opportunities to the project stakeholders.

“Based on the identified needs and expectation of a variety of community groups, the company has initiated community development projects which, gradually, evolved into strong partnerships with the local government, contractors, social institutions and NGOs.”

In monetary terms, 2018 saw Masan contribute 5.545 billion Vietnamese

Dong (VND) to projects covering areas such as farming and animal husbandry, vocational training and microfinancing, taking its total investment to VND 37.666 billion since 2011.

Hong cites several specific examples of this expenditure in action in 2018.

First is support for the construction of over 600 metres of rural concrete road linking the Ha Thuong and

Tan Linh communes, the latter also being the recipient of 150 metres of upgraded irrigation canals.

Another project saw 1,170 chairs, dozens of audio systems and desks for 14 villages cultural houses (community houses) of the Tan Linh commune, an area which saw VND 640 million of investment from Masan last year.

In the La Bang commune in Thai Nguyen province, the company has been helping communities obtain Vietgap certificates for tea production, linking them to influential companies in the country’s tea industry.

“These examples help prove that the company is implementing its commitments to our stakeholders,” says Hong.

“We have obligations to the country and want to build a sound reputation with our national and global customers. The corporate social implementation is also providing a win-win principle, meaning we are gaining support from communities and other stakeholders to continue our work at Nui Phao.”

For Hong, this is vital if Masan is to continue extracting the true potential of its world-leading tungsten resource.

Looking ahead to the future, he concludes: “I want Vietnam to become known for supplying strategic resources to worldwide industries.

“Masan is working within the bestin-class parameters to develop and expand our business with the aim of increasing shareholder value. We have a passion to show the world that a Vietnamese company can lead the transformation of the global tungsten market.”

Masan Resources

Tel: +84 3718 2490 info@mr.masangroup.com www.masangroup.com/ masanresources

The Pacific Islands are renowned as one of the world’s most dispersed, diverse regions. Home to a multitude of archipelago countries, comprising over 25,000 islands that span an area equivalent to around 15 percent of the earth’s surface, it’s a territory famed for exploration and adventure.

This reputation is unlikely to change any time soon, owed to the geographic formation and unique cultural personalities of many of these outcrops that define such characteristics. However, in more recent times, some of the Pacific Islands’ more preeminent nations have equally begun to industrialise and modernise.

Take Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, for instance.

Both traditionally agricultural economies, the pair have increasingly begun to leverage their natural resource bases in recent decades, be it the oil and gas industry in the former or the minerals industry through gold mining in the latter – a shift that Bishops has capitalised on since its formation in 1972.

“In PNG in particular, with both major projects and smaller projects muted to commence in the coming years, the economic conditions will continue to improve dramatically,” Len Pianta (pictured above), the company’s General Manager, reveals.

A quick glance at the World Bank’s national economic outlook shows that such predictions ring true, the organisation forecasting real GDP growth in PNG to reach five percent during 2019, primarily driven by increased production in the extractives sector.

“With these projects will come a mini boom during the construction stages, followed by added economic value once they’re fully operational,” Pianta adds, citing optimism for Bishops’ role to play in facilitating the success of such developments as the largest industrial tools supplier in PNG and indeed the Solomon Islands.

Expansion and extension

Having spoken with Pianta in August 2018, the GM was previously quick to highlight that the firm’s emphasis on holding partnerships in the highest esteem were crucial to its operations.