The Lao government has licensed two Vietnamese companies to grow 13,000 hectares of rubber trees, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Friday.

Under the licenses, Quang Minh company will invest 14 million U. S. dollars in planting 3,000 hectares of the trees in Laos' Attapu province. The plantation is expected to last 50 years.

In another project worth 22 million dollars, the Dac Lac company will grow 10,000 hectares of the trees in provinces of Attapu, Champasac and Salavan.

Vietnam, the world's fourth biggest natural rubber exporter, shipped abroad 65,000 tons of rubber valued at 104 million dollars in January, posting respective year-on-year rises of 12.6 percent and 17.8 percent, according to the Vietnam Rubber Association.

It sold 697,000 tons of rubber totaling nearly 1.3 billion dollars to more than 40 countries and regions, including China, South Korea, Japan, Germany and the United States in 2006, up 18.7 percent and 58.3 percent, respectively, against 2005.

Source: Xinhua