Construction and power company An Huy 1 Co. Ltd has also been banned from using foreign workers for two months by province authorities.

The company had hired 300 Chinese workers to build two thermal power plants, but 193 of them did not have work permits.

The $2-billion plant belongs to Jaks Resources Berhad Group, which operates in water supply, infrastructure construction and property development in Malaysia and power generation in Vietnam. Two 600 MW power plants will be built and operated by the company for 25 years before being handed over to Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Despite being licensed in 2011 construction of the plants did not start until 2016, when Jaks Resources Barhad signed up China Power Engineering Consulting Group Co. Ltd as the contractor.

Jaks promised to start operating the first plant by December 2019 and the second six months later.