The joint venture between the Lao government and China-Lao has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the project of the Asia-Potash International Intelligent Circular Industrial Park.
Tong Yongheng, general manager of the Sino-Agri International Potash Company, and Khamchanh Vongsaenboun, the deputy minister of planning and investment in Lao, signed the MoU on Friday in the capital Vientiane, with representatives from both sides.
Tong told Xinhua on Monday that the project aims to promote agriculture, industrialization, urbanization, investment and service industry in Laos. It consists of three sections, including a potash fertilizer industrial park, a non-potash industrial park and an Asia-Potash Town. It takes up a total area of about 2,000 hectares in Khammuan province, some 250 km southeast of Vientiane, with an estimated investment of $4.31 billion.
The Chinese general manager said that the project aims to speed up the growth of the potash fertilizer industry, which is expected to reach an annual production capacity of 10 million tons in the Southeast Asian nation.
In a speech delivered at the signing ceremony, Tong said that the Asia-Potash International Intelligent Circular Industrial Park is a platform for the Laos to take advantage of development opportunities and to transfer global industrial chains and supply chains amid world economic uncertainties and geopolitical conflicts.
The Lao government will work with the company to promote the construction of the industrial park as a model project to inject more energy into the economic development of Laos, according to Khamchanh.
It is expected to bring in between 30,000 and 50,000 local people $320 million to Lao's annual fiscal revenue and employ 30,000 to 50,000 local people after the project is put into operation.