Kuala Lumpur: CIMB Group today officially marked its presence in Lao PDR with the opening of the CIMB Thai - Vientiane branch in a ceremony presided over by H.E. Sonexay Sithphaxay, Deputy Governor of Bank of The Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and Dato' Shaarani Bin Ibrahim, CIMB Thai's Independent Director.


The Vientiane branch is CIMB Group's first presence in Lao PDR, and is also CIMB Thai's first branch abroad. CIMB Group is now present in nine out of 10 ASEAN nations.

"The Vientiane branch aims to cater to both local and foreign customers who have investments in Lao PDR, offering full-fledged financial solutions to facilitate business operations and transactions both domestically and overseas. Products and services that we are offering include deposits and loans in Lao kip, Thai baht and US dollar, and solutions for foreign business transactions, such as trade finance, inward and outward remittances, foreign exchange service, and so forth," said Subhak Siwaraksa, President & CEO, CIMB Thai Bank PCL.

"Lao PDR has high economic growth prospect and abundance of natural resources, and is a major trading partner of Thailand. We are committed to take part in driving and growing together with the country's economy. We will serve as a gateway to ASEAN for customers here, leveraging on CIMB Group's strong regional network," he added.

CIMB Thai Bank - Ventiane Branch will be the seventh Thai commercial bank and the 35th commercial bank incorporated in Lao PDR. Located at Lan Xang Avenue, near the famous Patuxay Monument and in the proximity of trade, business and cultural centers of Nakhon Luang Vientiane, the branch will be well prepared and fully equipped to provide financial solutions to all its target customer segments.

Subhak further elaborated that, in expanding its branch network across ASEAN, CIMB Group and CIMB Thai always believe in prioritizing the needs of the local people. As such, the Vientiane branch will serve primarily business customers, especially in manufacturing, local trade and foreign trade, and retail customers to whom the bank will offer deposit products and outward remittance services. Corporate customers will be offered payroll account services.

The bank is targeting THB 300 million loan approvals in the first year of operation, to be funded by deposits from local customers.

Lao PDR has recorded an average economic growth of 7.6% for the past five years with healthy growth prospect ahead. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has predicted Lao PDR's economic growth of 7.3% for 2014 and 7.5% for 2015. The growth in the previous year was contributed mainly by the service sector which expanded 9%, largely supported by strong loan financing in the banking sector. Household spending moved up in line with the income increase and retail and wholesale trade business expanded
significantly. Tourism grew 12%, pushing up the number of tourist inflows to 3.7 million persons in 2013, and thus contributing to related businesses like hotels, restaurants and transportation. Communications sector witnessed a two-digit growth buoyed by the fastgrowing mobile phone and internet businesses.

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