VietNamNet Bridge – The Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group is now the biggest Vietnamese investor in Laos. The following is a review of the company’s brand building and its current assets in Laos.

Rubber farms

In 2008, when the real estate market was still "hot", HAGL Group’s boss Doan Nguyen Duc began investing in planting rubber in Attapeu, which is seen as the ideal land for developing rubber farms.

With the help of Thai scientists and Israeli modern irrigation technology, just four years later, 3,000 hectares of rubber of Hoang Anh Attapeu Company yielded the first tons of latex.

Duc has 25,000 hectares of rubber, which can yield 100,000 tons of latex per year, bringing in revenue of $300 million a year and creating 15,000 permanent jobs for local people.

In 2013, HAGL Group inaugurated a rubber processing factory with total investment of $9 million, using modern technological lines, with a capacity of 25,000 tons/year.

Cow raising

In October 2014, Duc began building a cow farm for meat in Attapeu, on 1,500 hectares, using modern techniques.

The farm has about 15,000 cows. In the near future, the scale will be 30,000 cows. The farm has 1.5 hectares of elephant grass to feed the cattle.

Duc confirmed that beef would be the "super-profit" business of HAGL Group, which will bring about $30-$50 million for the corporation in 2015.

Sugar industry

The construction of Hoang Anh Attapeu Sugar Complex started in late 2011, with the total sugar area of 126,000 hectares.

HAGL also has a sugar factory with a daily capacity of 7,000 tons of sugarcane, a 30 MW thermal power plant fueled by sugarcane dregs, an ethanol plant with a yearly capacity of 30,000 tons/year, using molasses, and a fertilizer plant of 50,000 tons/year, using sludge residues from the sugar production line.

The total investment in this complex is about $87.8 million, including $19.1 million in 12,000 hectares of sugarcane farm.

The sugar factory became operational in February 2013. The first sugarcane crop yielded 120 tons/ha, doubling that of Vietnam. So far HAGL has grown more than 5.000 hectares. The rest will be planted in 2015.

$36 million international airport

The airport was inaugurated in Attapeu Province on May 30 this year.

The Attapeu International Airport has a total investment of $36 million, funded by HAGL Group. It was built by the Lao Government in two years, from May 2013 under the build-transfer (BT) form.

The airport includes a 4,300 sq.m. terminal, capable of serving 300 passengers per day along with a 1,850m runway that can cater to ATR-72 and Fokker aircraft.

It is a key project in southern Laos of political and socio-economic importance to both the country and Vietnam.

Mining and football

HAGL’s boss Doan Nguyen Duc also owns a copper and an iron mine in Xekong province, worth about $70 million.

This group has also built many community works such as a 200-bed hospital, schools, hotels, houses for resettlement, and transport infrastructure worth $35 million in the two provinces Attapeu and Xekong.

Duc is also the boss of Hoang Anh Attapeu football team in Laos.

Attapeu is the ideal land that Duc uses to implement his ambitions and it is also home to the second headquarters of HAGL Group.

Na Son