Carlsberg biggest foreign contributor to Thua Thien-Hue province budget

Carlsberg Vietnam Breweries Ltd. paid VND3.5 trillion ($143.5 million) to Thua Thien-Hue province in 2023, making it the biggest contributor in the foreign-invested sector to the provincial budget.

According to provincial data, the company, under Danish brewery giant Carlsberg, made up 86.4% of the FDI sector’s total contribution of VND4.37 trillion ($179.1 million).

The FDI sector’s budget contribution accounted for 38.5% of the province’s total budget revenue in 2023.

In 2023, the FDI sector in Thua Thien-Hue recorded revenues of over $1.4 billion, more than 10% of the province’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP).

Last year, Thua Thien-Hue attracted 12 new FDI projects with a total registered capital of $141.8 million. The biggest one was Italy’s Creanza with a $91.1 million high-tech quartz sand processing factory. Another major one was Japan-invested Okura Vietnam with a $12.5 million factory for manufacturing glue, adhesives, and plastic products.

So far, the central province has attracted 126 FDI projects with a total registered capital of $4.52 billion. It recorded economic growth of 7.03% in 2023, above the national average of 5.05%.

It collected VND11 trillion ($452 million) for the state budget, exceeding original estimates by 10.8%.

In November 2023, Carlsberg said a weak macroeconomy and consequentially more price-sensitive consumers had driven its Vietnam sales volume down in the third quarter of 2023. The beer market as a whole had fallen and Carlsberg was not immune to the decline, which particularly hurt its Huda brand, said CFO Ulrica Fearn.