“Sao Mai-Dak Nong solar power plant, with a total cost of VND12 trillion, is set to span 754 hectares and have a capacity of 875 megawatt peak (MWp). The project will be located in Cu Jut District, bordering Daklak Province and 20 kilometers from Buon Ma Thuot City.
The location will bring various advantages to the projected plant, including roadway transport systems, serving as a leverage for the development of an urban chain adjacent to Buon Ma Thuot, the biggest city in the Central Highlands region, which is one of eight Grade-I cities in Vietnam,” Le Thanh Thuan, general director of Sao Mai Group, told a meeting with Dak Nong Province’s Party Secretary and Chairman Le Dien and some other officials on September 30. Sao Mai Group (ASM) is known as a strategic investor of Dak Nong Province in the renewable energy sector.
In early 2004, Dak Nong Province was established following the separation of Daklak Province, in line with the National Assembly’s Resolution 22 dated November 26, 2003. Dak Nong Province boasts a number of natural landscapes such as Ea Sno Natural Lake; Chu Bluk as Southeast Asia’s longest volcanic cave; and Ta Dung National Park, dubbed “Halong Bay in the Central Highlands.”
Apart from its strengths for tourism, Dak Nong Province boasts other huge advantages, including abundant resources, hi-tech agriculture and processing of fishery and forestry products. Moreover, Dak Nong Province has up to 2,600 sunlight hours each year and high solar radiation, paving the way for developing the solar power sector.
To attract more investors, the province has stepped up administrative reforms, applied information technology, improved the investment environment and set up the public administration center over the past few years to facilitate the handling of procedures for enterprises.
Among investors seeking opportunities in the province, Sao Mai Group stands as a potential candidate as it realizes Dak Nong Province has a good investment climate and the group also appreciates working and responsibility spirits of officials in the province. Such positive signs have won the confidence of Sao Mai Group. The group is willing to pour trillions of Vietnamese dong into the province to make the most of abundant sunlight, grow rubber trees and process rubber for export.
Over the past three years, ASM has been widely known for its phenomenal involvement in the renewable energy sector as the group has continuously launched multiple big projects in Dong Thap, An Giang and Long An provinces in the Mekong Delta region, with a total capital of over VND10 trillion. Furthermore, Sao Mai Group has developed its solar farms into tourist sites to bring unique experiences to visitors. Such unique orientation speaks volumes for the group’s tourism development strategy.
Privatized in 1997, Sao Mai has achieved much remarkable success in the real estate field. Over the past few years, the group has gradually entered other sectors. Nowadays, Sao Mai Group is known as the country’s leading firm in the renewable energy sector and has ranked among the top five of Vietnam’s seafood processors for many years.
Aside from this, the group is also a strategic investor and developer of ecological tourism and a prestigious labor-export firm. Sao Mai Group has over 1,000 employees working at 16 member companies. The group pays hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong to the State budget each year and is one of the country’s major donors in community activities.
Highly evaluating the investor’s financial health, the leader of Dak Nong Province expects Sao Mai Group to create a driving force for the locality and improve residents’ quality of life. The leader of Dak Nong hopes that Sao Mai Group will become Vietnam’s leading firm combining the renewable energy development with tourism, contributing to making Gia Nghia a busy city and fulfilling the province’s economic targets in the 2020-2025 period.
