BTG begins work on $500m IP

The investment would position the company as the biggest Eastern European investor in Vietnam. Located in the northern mountainous province of Hoa Binh, 70 kilometres from Hanoi, BTG Holdings’ Lac Thinh Industrial Park (IP) in the first phase will house a Czech brewery, a 50 megawatt biomass power plant, industrial workshops, a training centre, apartments, and other logistics services facilities.

The first phase has an estimated investment fund of $300 million. The first phase is expected to go into operation next year, once basic infrastructure and amenities are ready.

The $200 million second phase will produce an urban township with a 5-star hotel, a hospital, residential buildings, a school and entertainment facilities, among others, to cater to the lives of both foreign and domestic workers at the park.

BTG Holdings president Stefan Zmajkovic told VIR at the ground-breaking ceremony that construction also started on a Czech brewery with an annual capacity of 190 million litres, the firm’s largest in Asia, using authentic Czech brewing technologies to produce bottom fermented lager. The brewery is expected to go operational in November 2015 and is aimed at meeting the growing demand for high-quality beer in Vietnam as well as Japan, China, and South Korea.

“Vietnam is one of BTG Holdings’ focal investment destinations in our global business expansion plan for a number of reasons. It is a strategic foothold in the Asian market, it maintains stable, strong economic growth, and has a large and hard-working labour force,” Zmajkovic said, adding that the first phase investment was expected to employ 2,000 workers.

He also said BTG Holdings’ investment projects within the Lac Thinh IP would draw the attention of other European investors who have expressed interest in building furniture, plastics, and ethanol factories in the park.

As a modern, dynamic energy and engineering company, BTG’s primary focus is on traditional energy, steam-gas cycles, combustion of biomass, small hydropower plants, and construction of breweries worldwide.