South Korea’s Taekwang Group is set for new growth in Vietnam, receiving blessing from the Vietnamese government in its ambitious plan to transform itself into a comprehensive industrial player from a humble beginning as a OEM shoe maker in the Southeast Asian country.

Taekwang Group Chairman Park Yeon-cha met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at its Vietnamese operation Taekwang Vina Industrial Co. on Saturday (local time) to discuss ways to strengthen Taekwang’s business in the country, according to the company. Chairman of the Vietnamese Government Office Mai Tien Dung, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thi Nghia, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Huynh Vinh Ai and President of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour Bui Van Cuong also attended the meeting.

During the meeting, which was arranged after Taekwang Vina was selected as the best company for offering generous employee benefits in the Southeast Asian country, the Prime Minister looked around the company’s welfare facilities including an in-house kindergarten, hospital and supermarket and was briefed on Taekwang’s plan to nurture talents and reinforce its business in Vietnam.

Welcoming Taekwang’s grand plan to expand its business realm in the Southeast Asian Country, Prime Minister Phuc pledged to provide full support for the company’s new businesses in the country, including the thermal power plant construction project in Nam Dinh, according to Taekwang.

Taekwang Group is the first Korean company to successfully make a foray into the Vietnamese market in 1994 with contract manufacturing of NIKE shoes at Taekwang Vina. It currently produces 160,000 pairs of shoes a day at Taekwang Vina and its second factory in Moc Bai.

The company expects the massive support by the Vietnamese government would speed up Taekwang’s project to build a 1,200-megawatt thermal power plant in Nam Dinh, a province south of the country’s capital Hanoi. The group’s power plant arm Taekwang Power Holdings Co. in July won approval from the Vietnamese government for the project worth $2.3 billion, eight years after it had secured business license in March 2009. It aims to complete the power plant by 2022.

The group has also been constructing a compound fertilizer producing facility on a site of 89,000 square meters in Hiep Phouc Industrial Park in Ho Chi Minh City.

By Kang Young-woon and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]