ACLEDA Bank Lao prepares for AEC
ACLEDA Bank Lao prepares for AEC
ACLEDA Bank Lao Ltd expects to employ and train more staff this year in preparation for the arrival of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015.
Bank Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mr Narin Phon, said yesterday that the bank now has more than 900 employees and it expects to have at least 1,100 by the end of this year.
“Currently we are announcing the next round of applications,” said another bank official.
Another reason the bank expects to have additional staff is because it plans to open four additional service offices in Vientiane and the provinces of Xaysomboun and Savannakhet.
The arrival of the AEC will transform Asean into a region with a free flow of goods, services, investment, skilled labour and capital.
In the AEC Blueprint, Asean member states agreed to reduce tariffs, improve frameworks for trade, better enforce compliance with standards and progressively open national service sectors up to cross-border supply and foreign investment.
ACLEDA Bank Lao is a bank that has experienced fast growth after starting business operations in 2008; its assets are now worth more than one trillion kip and it has 45 ATMs and 41 service and branch offices.
The bank now has a presence in almost all the provinces in Laos, but is yet to open in Phongsaly and Huaphan.
“However we expect to have service offices in these two provinces within the next two years,” Mr Narin said.
In 2011 the bank reaped benefits of 9.6 billion kip, in 2012 it earned 17.6 billion kip and last year it was 13.6 billion kip.
Mr Narin said the bank plans to disburse loans up to about one trillion kip (US$125 million) this year. The US$125 million will include US$89 million that the bank had disbursed in loans last year. The money that the bank will disburse in loans this year will include US$20 million that the bank will get from the FMO, a Dutch development bank.
Another US$10 million will come from KfW, formerly KfW Bankengruppe, a German government-owned development bank based in Frankfurt. “The rest of the money will be from the deposit accounts of local customers,” he said.
For this year's deposit account plan, the bank has targeted securing up to around 800 billion kip (US$100 million). This money will include US$73 million that the bank has accrued from last year.
The bank is now able to grant about 720 billion kip in loans to around 17,000 families. The money includes 54 percent in Lao currency, 38 percent in US currency and 8 percent in Thai currency.
It currently has 36,000 deposit accounts with over 620 billion kip in funds being held. ACLEDA bank opened for business in July 2008 and was the first Cambodia-based commercial bank to operate in Laos.
Its shareholders comprise ACLEDA Bank Plc, the International Finance Corporation (operated by the World Bank Group) and Triodos-Doen and Triodos Fair Share Fund, the Netherlands' development finance company.
It recently received a congratulatory certificate from the government to certify that ACLEDA Bank Lao is enjoying excellent business operations and has made a significant contribution to economic development over the last five years (2008-2013).
vientiane times
