Five projects of Vietnamese investors worth a total 4.328 million USD received licences in Laos in the first two months of this year, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

This brought the total number of Vietnamese invested projects in Laos to 197 with total registered capital of more than 3.3 billion USD. With this figure, Laos continues to be the leading investment destination of choice by Vietnamese businesses.

Projects in Laos helped to generate jobs for 10,000 Vietnamese and local workers, contributing to the socio-economic development of Laos in general and host localities in particular.

Speaking highly of the Lao market, Do Nhat Hoang, head of the FIA said that besides Cambodia, Laos has a strategic importance to Vietnam in both economic and national defence terms.

Over the past three years, Vietnam’s investments in Laos rose quickly in both project number and value, led by major corporations such as the Vietnam Coal and Mineral Industries Group, the Vietnam Rubber Group, the military telecom services provider Viettel and the Song Da Corporation that pour their money in the fields of mining, agro-forestry, telecommunications and infrastructures construction.

Viettel is now the second largest telecoms service provider in Laos, with over 1,800 base transceiver stations and 1.6 million subscribers. The group is striving to become the leading telecoms provider in this country this year.

The Vietnam Rubber Group has implemented six projects in Laos, planting rubber trees on over 22,500 hectares of land.

The Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper quoted Doan Tho Nam, counsellor of Vietnamese Economy and Culture in Laos said that in order to invest in Laos as saying Vietnamese businesses should also pay attention to cattle breeding, cattlefeed production and aquaculture which are potential investment sectors prioritised by the Lao government./.