Khammuan world-class financial centre and tourism attraction announced
Khammuan world-class financial centre and tourism attraction announced
Lao and foreign investors have announced a joint venture costing US$10 billion to develop a world-class financial centre, the first ever Disney Laos and residential and superior lifestyle communities in Thakhek Specific Economic Zone (TSEZ) in the central p rovince of Khammuan.
The signing ceremony of an agreement that allows the Lao, Thai and Malaysian investors to use seven hectares of land to develop the first phase of the project, took place last week in Vientiane between the TSEZ executive board and the investors. High-ranking officials of both sides witnessed the event.
Presen ting the project concept at the ceremony, Mr Somjith Aliyaphaphone, Chairman of the Akane Farm Sole Co Ltd, the Lao investor, announced that his company and its Thai and Malaysian partners will also develop the first ever Disney Lao in the second phase, and residential and superior lifestyle communities in the third phase.
The three-phase project has a 75-year concession with the possible extension of another 15 years. Overall construction of the project is expected to take seven years to complete, beginning in November this year when construction of the first phase is slated to commence.
The first phase will develop a 30-storey Thakhek Ehsan International Financial Centre at a cost of US$5 billion. Construction of the centre will take two years to complete.
The second phase will develop the first ever Disney Laos with a focus on eco-tourism in Adventure Land complemented with the first ever ‘Mountain Walk' cable car network between mountains in the province. This phase will be developed at a cost of US$2 billion and completed within 2 years.
The third phase will develop residential and superior lifestyle communities within Thakhek district for easy living for those working in Thakhek and for property investment purposes. This last phase will cost US$3 billion, spanning over 3 years.
Land concession agreements to develop the 2nd and 3rd phases with a combined area of another 500 hectares are expected to take place separately later this year, Mr Somjith told the Vientiane Times.
Speaking at the ceremony, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Akane Farm Sole Co.Ltd, Mr Raja Azman Shah Bin Raja Ahmad said the joint venture investors have been making TSEZ a strategic “international world class investment hub” by bringing into TSEZ a pool of ready investment funds, state of the art and gree n technology and project development and management expertise and know how to deliver a strategic infrastructure of accessibility.
He explained that the TSEZ is land linked to Thailand through the friendship bridge, land linked to Cambodia by a journey of 450km, land linked to Vietnam over 150km and is also accessible through the water ways of the Mekong River which spans across Indochina and into Greater China.
“The Lao PDR is also known as the golden land. Indeed it is golden with an abundance of opportunities if you know where to find, create and sustain them,” the CEO said.
He added that the investors have set investment targets in the Lao PDR, specifically in the TSEZ because of its strategic ‘inter-section' connection to five fast developing economies – Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and China, with the Lao PDR being a member of Asean creating new frontiers for collaboration within Asean and externally.
“Being a strategic hub TSEZ has abundant access to local and foreign labour, skilled and unskilled, new economic markets and territories and, most important of all, to us in Akane Farm.Co.Ltd, the board of directors and management is viewing the Lao PDR as the ‘the rising golden land', synonymous with how ‘land of the rising sun' relates to Japan, ‘the rising tiger' to Vietnam and ‘the rising dragon' to China,” he said.
The CEO added that Laos has a small population but very big and warm hearts to make this ‘rising golden land' a place that all Asean people and the rest of the world will want to visit, invest in, enjoy and know all about.
These attributes will make the visitors spend their money on eco-tourism and appreciate the preservation of natural parks and recreation areas and witness nature before their very eyes while riding on the exotic cable car network above the clouds and within the mountains in Khammuan province, linking the mountains with a bridge, in the same vein as the Malaysian ‘Sky Bridge of Langkawi Island', he declared.
The Lao government approved the TSEZ in 2012 covering a total area of 1,035 hectares in a move to attract more investment and speed up socio-economic development in the province, according to President of the TSEZ Executive Board Mr Daolay Keodouangdy.
So far, almost 80 percent of the total area has been allocated to investors who will do business in the zone.
vientiane times
