Two local companies in the central province of Binh Dinh will likely get licenses to invest in the neighboring country of Laos with a combined US$22mil, said a provincial official.

Binh Dinh Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Company (Bidiphar) has got the Prime Minister's agreement in principle to plant and process rubber in Laos, according to Binh Dinh investment Promotion Center.

The Government has asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to appraise this project and award the license to the Binh Dinh-based company.

Its will cooperate with Laos' CBF Pharma Co., Ltd of Champasak Province to carry out the project in the two southern provinces of Champasak and Sekong.

The project is capitalized at some US$10mil, of which 80 comes from the Vietnamese partner.

It will be days before the MPI issues the outbound investment license to Bidiphar, said the source. Earlier, these two companies already had a joint venture in Laos capitalized at US$2mil.

Also according to the source, apart from Bidiphar's project, the MPI is now processing the project dossier of Binh Dinh Industry Agriculture Trading Co., Ltd (Bidina) to invest in Sekong Province with total capital of US$12mil for the first phase.

This wholly-Vietnamese-owned project is aimed to develop new plantations of rubber, sugar-cane, cassava and agro-industrial crops alongside processing factories in Sekong Province. The project will require 10,000ha of land.

These two projects invested by Binh Dinh companies are part of the cooperation program between Binh Dinh Province and southern provinces of Laos, according to the center.

Under this program, besides friendship activities, a number of other specific investment projects are in the pipeline now.

The next project is from Binh Dinh's Tan Duc Duy Co., Ltd., which has just agreed with Laos' Vongvilay Company to set up a joint venture factory to process timber and forestry products worth nearly US$1mil in Attapu Province.

In another project, Binh Dinh Sugar Stock Company is also considering a plan of growing sugarcanes and building a new sugar refinery in Sekong.

The center and Binh Dinh Service of Planning and Investment are guiding these enterprises to prepare the investment dossiers for submission to the MPI for the licensing.

According to the MPI, Vietnam now has 51 projects, capitalized at almost US$365mil, in Laos, making it the country hosting the most of Vietnam's outbound investment projects.

(Source: STD)