Infrastructure

China aims to complete laying a 418-kilometre (260-mile) railway from a border town to Laos by 2020, the official China Economic Herald reported, as the economic giant seeks a new route into the emerging markets of Southeast Asia. The two countries agreed on 13 November to jointly ...

Water storage engineers in Vientiane are now installing pumps on boats moored over deep sections of the Mekong River as alternatives to riverbank pumps to access sufficient water supplies. Currently, riverbank pumps are still taking water from the Mekong to reservoirs but the level of water ...

Subscription to the initial public offering of Phnom Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) opened on 12 November. The capital’s port operator aims to raise $5.2 million by floating a 20 per cent stake on the Cambodian stock exchange in December, becoming the third company to list on ...

Vietnam’s Ministry of Transport has started a feasibility study on a 760-kilometer highway to connect Hanoi and Vientiane, local media reported on 11 November.   The study conducted by Transport Engineering Design Inc. will help decide whether the route should pass through Nghe An or Ha Tinh, two central ...

Expensive and unreliable electricity continues to weigh down Cambodia’s ranking on the UN-accredited World Energy Council’s annual Energy Trilemma Index, according to a report released on 11 November. The Kingdom ranked a low 115 out of 130 countries on the annual index, which assesses countries according ...

The Nam Theun 2 hydropower plant, one of the largest in Laos, has generated sizeable revenue for the government and contributed to the alleviation of poverty, according to the International Environmental and Social Panel of Experts. The Nam Theun 2 Panel of Experts released its latest ...

Officials are wrestling with the problem of identifying a long-term solution to Vientiane’s chronic traffic jams and some are suggesting that an overpass might ease the situation. While no such scheme currently exists, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility to imagine that overpasses will ...

Ho Chi Minh City has asked for the central government’s help in taking out loans worth around US$380 million for a major dredging program to deepen one of its key waterways, local media reported on 9 November.   The Soai Rap, a tributary of the Saigon River, ...

Heavy rain that hit parts of Sankhaburi district of Chai Nat province on night of 9 November caused the bank of the Noy river to collapse, damaging a riverside road and pulling down many houses. Hardest hit were villages in tambons Don Kam, Bang Khut and Pho Ngam. Keep ...

More roads in Vientiane and the provinces are being built or upgraded using concrete rather than asphalt as the authorities recognise its durability against the ravages of wet weather and heavy trucks. An official from the Vientiane Public Works and Transport Department, who asked not to ...