Conglomerate Thaco to make $750 mln agricultural investment in Laos

Southern Laos Agricultural Investment and Business Production Co. Ltd. (Southern Laos Agri), under leading Vietnamese private conglomerate Thaco, has received an investment certificate for a $750 million agricultural project in Laos.

In an announcement last Saturday, Thaco said the document was granted at the Vietnam-Laos investment conference in Hanoi on January 7, an activity held on the sidelines of Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandon’s visit to Vietnam on January 6-7.

The mega project will cover 27,384 hectares in the provinces of Attapeu and Sekong. Specialized crops will be planted across 10,000 hectares – 8,000 hectares of bananas and 2,000 hectares of pineapples.

The project will also include fruit trees alongside 210,000 cattle over 14,000 hectares, and the development of a 200-hectare industrial park - home to facilities like factories producing agricultural materials and machinery, plants to process fruit and agricultural products; offices, warehouses and logistics operation centers.

Southern Laos Agri was established after the merger between Hoang Anh Attepeu Agricultural Development Co. Ltd. and Hoang Anh Quang Minh Rubber Industry and Agriculture Co. Ltd., which were both under the umbrella of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agricultural JSC (HAGL Agrico).

HAGL Agrico is an agricultural company founded in 2010 by Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Corporation. In August 2018, Thaco purchased 27.63% of HAGL Agrico's shares. Then in early 2021, Thaco officially took over HAGL Agrico’s projects, in line with HAGL’s withdrawal.

Laos is the biggest outbound investment destination of Vietnam. Vietnamese businesses have invested in 245 projects in Laos with registered capital of $5.5 billion, of which $2.75 billion was disbursed, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said at the event. The projects focus on telecommunications, banking, rubber, food processing and manufacturing, and dairy products.