Choummaly Sayasone, General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and Lao President, has praised the role of the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Laos and BIDV in linking Laos and Vietnamese enterprises.
In his official friendship visit to Hanoi last week, Sayasone met with representatives of the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Laos (AVIL) and BIDV. According to Sayasone, with 60 main members being Vietnamese corporations, AVIL has contributed significantly to boost investment activities of Vietnamese enterprises in Laos and economic relations between the two countries.
BIDV chairman Tran Bac Ha, also AVIL president, said with the active role of AVIL and BIDV, trade and investment between the two countries had increased steadily in terms on scale and quality.
BIDV is one of Vietnam’s leading banks with the state holding the controlling stake. “Two-way trade between the two countries topped $900 million, a year-on-year rise of 22 per cent. This figure is expected to hit $2 billion by 2015. Vietnam now ranks third out of 52 countries worldwide investing in Laos,” he said.
According to Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam had granted licences to 222 projects worth nearly $3.8 billion in Laos. Among them, there were 13 projects in 2012 with registered capital of nearly $400 million.
Laos has also granted permits for 415 projects involving Vietnamese firms, worth a total of $5 billion.
Some Vietnamese projects getting licences include Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group’s sugar and sugarcane industrial cluster in Attapeu province, a mining potassium project by Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem) and the Lao-Viet Joint Venture Bank to raise its chartered capital to $37.5 million.
In the process of investment in Laos, Vietnamese enterprises actively contributed to Laos government’s poverty reduction programme, giving $35 million towards social and cultural programmes in Laos, such as the building of schools, hospitals and resettlement areas.
