Viet Nam-based Kova Paint Group opened its first manufacturing facility in Cambodia on Saturday after two years of construction.

 

The paint factory, built on 1ha in Bavet Commune in the border province of Svayrieng’s Chantrea District, can turn out 60 tonnes of paint per day.

 

The factory employs some 100 people, two-thirds of whom are Cambodians.

 

The president of Kova Paint group, Dr Nguyen Thi Hoe, said the Kova Investment International Cambodia Co, a subsidiary of Kova group, had invested US$3 million in the new factory.

 

The Vietnamese group contributed 70 per cent of the company’s capital and Singaporean companies the remaining 30 per cent.

 

Hoe also announced the opening of Soma Kova Holding Ltd, a joint venture between Kova group and a Cambodia company that specialises in selling products manufactured at the Kova’s Cambodian factory in local and overseas markets.

 

Kova’s products, such as stone-like paint, metallic paint, water – based paint for floors, and heat-insulating paint, among others, made in the Cambodian factory would be exported to Malaysia and Cambodia later this year.

 

According to Rajeev Vaidya, managing director of DuPont Titanium Technologies, Asia Pacific, Kova began operation in a small unit in the yard of HCM City’s University of Technology in 1992, and now has eight subsidiaries and five plants today.

 

"In 16 years, the growth of the Kova group under the leadership of Madame Hoe has been phenomenal," said Vaidya.

 

He said Kova and Dupont had enhanced their co-operation over the last 14 years.

 

"As Kova has grown, so has the partnership. There are many things that connect Kova and Dupont," said Vaidya.

 

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Paul Keng, the CEO of Kova International Singapore Pte, a subsidiary of Kova group, said the presence of Kova in Cambodia and Singapore would create a gateway for the Kova group to ASEAN countries as well as global markets. — VNS