Vietnamese businessman to donate 14 million dollars for SEA Games

Hanoi - A Vietnamese real estate and forest products magnate said Wednesday he will pledge 14 million dollars to Laos to help the country host the 2009 SEA Games, the biannual Southeast Asian sports competition. Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, said he and a Laotian deputy prime minister will sign the sponsorship agreement in Vientiane Saturday.

Duc said the money would be used to build an athletes' housing complex in Vientiane. After the games are over, the complex will become a dormitory for the National University of Laos.

"I decided to sponsor Laos because Hoang Anh Gia Lai has business operations there, and the Laotian government has supported my company a lot," Duc said.

Duc said his group owns a wood processing factory in Laos which consumes between 10,000 and 20,000 cubic metres of timber annually. It also has 15,000 hectares of rubber tree plantations in the heavily forested country.

Duc said his company planned to begin mining iron and copper ore in Laos in the near future.

Earlier this year, Duc became the first private aircraft owner in Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 when he purchased a used Beechcraft King Air 350 for 7 million dollars.

Duc is the chairman of the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club, one of Vietnam's most successful teams, and has been negotiating to purchase a stake of 20 per cent in the British soccer club Arsenal.

The Hoang Anh Gia Lai conglomerate has branched out from its original base in rubber plantations in Vietnam's central highlands to include interests in real estate, hotels, and other industries. In an interview in May, Duc said he expects profits of more than 150 million dollars this year.