Transport and shipping policy and administration

Thailand appreciates China for its constructive role in promoting regional connectivity through various initiatives including the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the launch of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, a senior Thai official said. “We believe that effective connectivity would help promote ...

A groundbreaking ceremony to begin the construction of a high-profile rail project linking Vientiane with the Chinese border is scheduled to take place on 2 December– the day the Lao People’s Democratic Republic marks its 40th anniversary. The governments of Laos and China signed an agreement ...

The Lao and Chinese governments have signed an agreement to officially launch the construction of a new 418 kilometre railway next month. The agreement to begin the long-delayed project was signed on Friday in Beijing, the Vientiane Times online reported on 18 November. Keep reading ...

The Thai cabinet approved a draft cooperation framework on 17 November for the Thai-Chinese railway development project. Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said the draft framework covered the construction of 1.435-metre standard-gauge railways along two routes. They are Nong Khai-Nakhon Ratchasima-Kaeng Khoi and Bangkok-Kaeng Khoi-Map Ta Phut.  Keep reading ...

Laos is preparing to undertake a feasibility study with Vietnam for a Vientiane-Hanoi highway project to bring the two capital cities closer to one another. Head of Office of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Dr Santisouk Simmalavong told Vientiane Times on 16 November that the ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...