Bloomberg | 31 May 2013

By Robert Mbakouo

Wah Seong Corp. (WSC), a Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based oil, gas and industrial services company, plans to invest $744 million over the next 10 years to develop palm oil plantations in Republic of Congo, said Rigobert Maboundou, the African country’s agriculture minister.

ATAMA Plantation Sarl, a unit of Wah Seong, will initially plant palm trees on 180,000 hectares (444,790 acres), Maboundou told reporters in Yengo, 600 kilometers (373 miles) north of the republic’s capital, Brazzaville.

The company will build nine plants to produce 920,000 metric tons of two different kinds of palm oil annually, said Leong King Ming, ATAMA president. Production is due to start in 2017, he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Mbakouo in Brazzaville Via Nairobi at [email protected]