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Big C to open shopping complex in Vientiane
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| Minister of Planning and Investment Mr Somdy Douangdy (second right ) presents an investment license to Mr Jiravit Jitatisil. |
The Lao government has giving the green light for Big C Supercentre Public Co Ltd from Thailand to invest in consumer goods and services at the new Talat Sao Mall extension on Vientiane's Lane Xang Avenue.
The Planning and Investment Ministry presented the investment license to the company yesterday in Vientiane.
“We expect to open the service within the next three to five months with an investment cost of about 40 billion kip (US$5 million),” company representative Mr Jiravit Jitatisil said during a visit to the minister yesterday.
The company plans to open the shopping centre in Vientiane because it has seen a large number of shoppers from Laos cross the border to buy consumer goods in Nongkai and Udon Thani, Thailand.
“Our recent study shows that shoppers from Laos spend about 268 billion kip (1 billion baht) per year there. This means they pay 7 percent value added tax (VAT), which is millions of baht, to the Thai government each year,” Mr Jiravit said.
“Once we have opened the service here, we hope to attract about 50 percent of that expenditure or 500 to 600 million baht per year. If they buy goods in Laos, the VAT will be paid in Laos.”
Shoppers from Laos go to the Thai branches mainly to buy seafood. At the Big C's Vientiane branch, about 70 percent of goods will be food products, which the company will purchase mainly from Lao producers, including local farmers and food processing plants.
“ The food will be sourced or supplied locally,” Mr Jiravit said. However the company has not made contact with any local suppliers so far. “We will start looking for suppliers now, following the investment license approval,” he said.
The company will send a purchase team to Laos and study how many local suppliers can produce goods for the company.
About 30 percent of products will be imported; such as household goods and personal products because Laos still has limited production in these areas.
The company also has to study the tax and duty structure in Laos, especially the import tariff system.
It hopes to negotiate with state sectors to find out how to make prices similar to those in Thailand. “This is to reduce cross-border shopping to buy goods in Nongkai and Udon Thani,” Mr Jiravit explained.
Big C Supercenter operates their business in the form of a “hypermarket” or “super-centre”, a modern retail business, which is managed under the umbrella of the company and its subsidiaries.
It has a total of 105 branches in Thailand and almost 20 branches in Vietnam and one will be opened at the Talat Sao Mall.
“If the business is good we will expand to Savannakhet, Champassak and Luang Prabang provinces,” he said.
Currently the Talat Sao Mall is preparing to open its doors and began testing the facilities last month. The shopping mall extension is over 95 percent complete and it plans to hold the opening ceremony before the end of the year.
When the facility is finis hed it will be the largest shopping centre in Laos and will feature a shopping complex, department store, supermarket, fast food outlets, restaurants, a cinema, karaoke lounge, function hall, training school, child education centre, offices, a hotel and parking.
vientiane times
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