A year on, Laotians say high-speed rail link with China has brought them few benefits
A year ago, a U.S.$6 billion high-speed railway was completed between Laos and China amid much fanfare and hopes that it would fuel exports from Laos and spur growth in the impoverished, landlocked country. But one year later, most of the trade has been one-way: from ...
RFA Lao
Laos, Thailand Meet to Discuss Railway Project Connecting Vientiane and Nong Khai
The Minister of Public Works and Transport of Laos, Mr. Viengsavath Siphandone, met with Thailand’s Minister of Transport, Mr. Saksayam Chidchob, and his team last week to discuss the project’s development. This was after Thailand’s Department of Rail Transport provided an update on the progress ...
Phontham Visapra
The Completed China-Laos Railway: Bringing Opportunities for ASEAN and the Asia Pacific
In early December 2021, Laos inaugurated the Boten-Vientiane railway, a 414-kilometer (km) electrified high-speed railway that runs between the capital Vientiane and the town of Boten on the Laos-China border. This US$6 billion project (equivalent to one-third of Laos’ GDP) is backed by China as part ...
Ayman Falak Medinav
Laos Will Open $5.9 Billion Railway as Debt to China Mounts
Laos, a nation of 7 million people wedged between China, Vietnam and Thailand, is opening a $5.9 billion Chinese-built railway that links China’s poor southwest to foreign markets but piles on potentially risky debt. The line through lush tropical mountains from the Laotian capital, Vientiane, to ...
Kurtenbach contributed from Bangkok
Laos banks on new high-speed railway to draw tourists and investment
The men arrived in dark jackets, and the women in fine woven silk skirts. They filed into the gleaming railway station under a red sign that said “Vientiane” in Lao and Chinese. Then they set off. Laotian lawmakers took a test ride on their country’s first ...
Tan Hui Yee
Most stations on Laos-China Railway now complete
Most of the stations on the Laos-China Railway are now complete ahead of the planned opening of the railway in December. Kasy Station in Vientiane province was the most recent to be completed and was officially unveiled on Sept 27. The station was built by the China ...
Vientiane Times/ANN
China Opens Rail Line, Trade Route to Indian Ocean Through Myanmar
China last month inaugurated a new trade route via ship, road and rail running through Myanmar in keeping with Beijing’s dogged building spree across the Southeast Asian country to reach the Indian Ocean and points west. Analysts say it is one more strand in the ever-expanding ...
Zsombor Peter
Trains to arrive next month for trial run of Laos-China railway
The Laos-China railway project will bring in locomotives, electric multiple unit (EMU) trains and other equipment to conduct the first trial run of the railway in October. The plan was presented at the 10th Laos-China Railway Project Steering Committee Meeting held in Vientiane on Wednesday, attended ...
Phomphong Laoin
Laos Planned Railways: Opening a National Rail Network in 2021
At present, Laos doesn’t have any railways. However, that is about to change in 2021. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with his Laos counterpart Saleumxay Kommasith last week in a virtual meeting to discuss progress on the China-Laos Economic Corridor. Both Governments have occasions ...
Chris Devonshire-Ellis
Despite COVID-19 Crunch, China-Mekong Integration Continues
Earlier this week, Myanmar and China formally agreed to begin work on an important section of a long-delayed railway project running from Yunnan province to the Indian Ocean. On January 10, the state-run Myanmar Railways and the China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group (CREEG) signed an agreement to conduct ...
Sebastian Strangio