The grand opening ceremony of the factory took place in Vientiane on Friday, attended by Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Dr Lien Thikeo, Singapore Ambassador to Laos,  Dominic Goh Kian Swee, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, Bounmy Manivong, local authorities and business partners from Laos, Singapore, Australia, China, Chinese Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines. 

The factory will help to enhance the trade cum business collaboration between Laos and Singapore within the Asean treaty, Director of Link Capital Laos Co., Ltd., Denny Chong, said at the ceremony.

It will also create job opportunities for local people so they earn more and improve their quality of their life.

“We are established as the first and only full licensed agarwood business operators in Laos to buy trees, inoculate trees, harvest the trees we have inoculated, pre-process the harvested trees and export pre-processed harvested trees and Oud oil globally,” he said.

“Currently, we have the technology to do distillation of pre-processed products from Laos into Oud oil overseas and export to global markets. Eventually we plan to build distillation facilities in Laos and Singapore,” he added.

The company is working towards promoting Lao agarwood to international markets with international standards, especially international certification processes like the CITES Certificate, Phytosanitary Certificate, Country of Origin and relevant export licenses and documentation, international standard plantation management, inoculation and distillation technology.

“We have the right international funding partners who understand our business and support us all the way to scale up the business to meet the high demand of the global markets in different sectors, i.e. the Middle East/GCC markets with a total estimated GDP of US$1.8 trillion a year, Europe for the fragrance market worth US$40 billion a year, and Asia for pharmaceutical/medical markets worth more than US$100 billion a year,”  Chong said.

The company will continue to work very hard and closely with the government of Laos and the government of Singapore to build a long term significant and reputable business at an international level to promote the two countries and collaboration between Asean members.