Laos will become the main focus of Thai industrial developer Amata Corporation as it seeks to capitalise on the country’s extensive land reserves, hydroelectric power and growing links with China, its chief executive Vikrom Kromadit has said.
Amata entered Laos in 2022 with Amata City Namor, a 31.5 sq km development beside a station on the China-Laos Railway. Its long-term plans could eventually cover 200 sq km.
“Laos will become our largest focus because of the land bank that they have,” Mr Kromadit said. “They also have lots of green energy—that’s why they’re called the battery of Southeast Asia.”
Amata targets Chinese manufacturers in Laos
The landlocked country has built its economy around hydroelectricity, using its rivers and mountainous terrain to develop a network of dams. Laos currently exports about 80 per cent of its electricity to countries including Thailand, China and Singapore.
Mr Kromadit said Laos had “the best natural conditions” for industrial development, citing its supplies of land and water. The country generates more than 12 gigawatts from over 80 hydro plants, although many cross-border transmission lines bypass local communities, leaving consumers facing frequent blackouts.
Amata sees the country as a potential destination for Chinese manufacturers shifting production abroad. Laos has been included in “China plus one” supply chains, in which Chinese and international companies move some or all of their manufacturing to other countries to reduce costs and avoid tariffs on goods originating in China.
China is Laos’s largest foreign investor. The Vientiane Times reported that China invested 18 billion dollars in the Laotian economy in 2025, mainly in industry, mining and agriculture.
“China is the largest manufacturer of all products, so they can’t just keep building only within their country,” Mr Kromadit said. “They’re also being hit by political pressure from the U.S.”
Industrial parks across Thailand and Vietnam
Amata built its business in Thailand and Vietnam before expanding into Laos. Founded in 1989, the company developed industrial parks in Thailand’s Rayong and Chon Buri provinces and opened its first Vietnamese facility in 1994, during the early stages of the country’s reform programme.
Mr Kromadit, who studied mechanical engineering at National Taiwan University, returned to Thailand in 1975 and founded an import-export business dealing in agricultural products, minerals and seafood. Frustrated at being a middleman, he co-founded the Bang Pakong Industrial Estate in 1988 before establishing Amata Corporation the following year.
After visiting Vietnam in 1990, he chose it as Amata’s first overseas market. The company launched Amata City Bien Hoa in Dong Nai province in 1994. Vietnam has since become south-east Asia’s fastest-growing economy, with third-quarter GDP growth of 9.95 per cent, while the government aims to reach high-income status by 2045.
Amata now hosts more than 1,500 factories across 12 locations in Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. An attempted expansion into Myanmar began in 2019 but was halted in early 2021 after a military coup and the resulting civil war.
The company describes its sites as industrial cities rather than simple factory estates, combining manufacturing facilities with housing, schools, hospitals and shopping centres. Its flagship Chon Buri campus includes the 38,000 sq m Lotus Plus Mall, with a hypermarket, shops, banks, restaurants and an international cinema.
Amata also operates kindergartens, schools and technical training institutes and is considering building a university. Mr Kromadit said the company already had about 700 sq km of land available, enough to keep him occupied for the rest of his life.
