Transport and shipping
Transport infrastructure and facilities
Xayaboury set to become new transit hub
Xayaboury province is becoming a major transit hub for international tourists after the government upgraded a border crossing with Thailand to inter-national level, according to a senior provincial official. “We are becoming a new transit hub for international tourists coming to Laos,” the province’s Deputy Governor, ...
Vientiane Times
Friendship bridges that are not friendly
Four ‘Friendship Bridges’ span the wide majestic Mekong River as it creates a meandering borderline between Thailand and Laos but just how friendly are these border bridges? When the first bridge opened back in 1994, spanning the river between Nong Khai in Thailand and Vientiane province ...
Don Ross
Xekong on track to have first international border crossing with Vietnam
The Prime Minister’s Office plans to upgrade the Daktaok local border crossing in Dakcheung district, Xekong province, to an international level crossing on the Vietnamese border. Lao and Vietnamese officials are currently discussing the date when this change will take place. If the status is elevated ...
The Costs of China’s Belt and Road Expansion
When I returned to Xigang after five years, I couldn’t recognize it. What had been a small but generally well-maintained beach town had become a sprawling mess of a city; construction, mud, and piles of garbage were seemingly everywhere. The Han Chinese with whom I ...
Chris Horton
New Laos-Vietnam shared border crossings soon
Laos and Vietnam are preparing to upgrade two more local crossing points to official border crossings to facilitate international visits between them. The facilities to be upgraded are the Pa Hang-Long Sap crossing point between Laos’ Huaphan province and Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province, and the Dak ...
Thai gov't approves financial aid to 5th Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge
The Thai government on Tuesday approved financial assistance to Laos for the construction of the fifth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge linking Thailand’s northeastern province of Bueng Kan with Lao’s central province of Bolikhamsai. “The fifth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge had been approved in principle in the Cabinet’s resolution ...
Xuxin
Southeast Asia's trans-regional corridor takes shape
The opening of a new bridge between Thailand and Myanmar has pushed Southeast Asia one step closer to the realization of an East-West Economic Corridor, connecting the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean. The corridor, which passes through Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, is set to ...
Yuichi Nitta
China-Laos railway project brings Lao, Chinese people closer
An aerial view from the China-Laos border to the capital Vientiane reveals a ruled, comparatively straight line embedded into northern Laos, laid among the foothills, crossing gullies, rivers and fields, and with small arcs bypassing villages. It’s the China-Laos railway project, a landmark construction project in ...
Zhang Jianhua, Wang Shan
Vietnam government to mobilize efforts for mega transportation projects in 2020
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said the government would mobilize all efforts for the implementation of major transport projects in 2020. These include the Eastern North-South expressway, Long Thanh International Airport, expansion of Tan Son Nhat International Airport, and feasibility study of North-South express railway project, ...
Hai Yen
Lao gov’t gives green light to PetroTrade for Laos-Vietnam railway development
The Lao government has entrusted and given the right to the Petroleum Trading Lao Public Company (PetroTrade) to conduct a feasibility study on the Laos-Vietnam Railway Project, from Thakhaek district in Khammuan province, Laos, to the Vietnamese border. The Ministry of Planning and Investment, on behalf ...