Transport and shipping

Thailand hopes that China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative would boost trade and investments as well as increase the number of tourists visiting Thailand from Eurasian countries, including Kazakhstan which is hosting the Astana Expo 2017.​ Nat Pinyowattanacheep, Thailand’s ambassador to Kazakhstan, said that although ...

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conditional support for China’s Belt and Road infrastructure plan tells Beijing that Tokyo is ready to work toward warmer bilateral ties as the future of Asian security grows more uncertain. Abe praised the initiative’s “potential to connect East and West” in ...

Infrastructure development under the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model is taking shape in Laos as the government requires huge capital investment to improve road networks and other facilities. Lao economists have supported the initiative, saying that with the government’s limited funding, it’s critical to encourage the involvement ...

Dubbed by some as a modern-day Marshall Plan, China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative will build roads, ports and railway tracks along ancient trading routes to Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, OBOR is a China-backed ...

After coming under public scrutiny, Central Kalimantan Governor Sugianto Sabran halted the construction of a railroad being built to transport coal through forested areas of the province. The governor’s decision followed a May 21 report by Mongabay’s Indonesian sister site, which documented that the developers ...

General Electric Co said on May 31 it had signed deals in Vietnam worth about $5.58 billion for power generation, aircraft engines and services, its largest single combined sale with the country in GE’s history. The agreements came as Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc was on a ...

Thailand is seeking to take on Singapore’s dominance in aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul with a $5.7 billion upgrade of a Vietnam War-era airport. Lockheed Martin Corp.’s Sikorsky Aircraft is the latest company to study a possible increase in MRO spend in Thailand in the wake ...

 Japan Airlines will launch additional flights serving Australia and Hawaii as early as September, revamping its international routes for the first time since undergoing bankruptcy reorganization in 2010. In addition to an existing route between Narita Airport and Sydney and code-share flights, Japan’s flag carrier ...

The World Bank Office in Vientiane on May 24 presented the bank’s Partnership Framework for Laos 2017-2021 to stakeholders, together with the findings of the Systematic Country Diagnostic and the launch of the annual publication entitled Lao Economic Monitor. The new partnership framework between Laos and ...

The government has instructed relevant sectors to study the establishment of a Lao joint state-private company to join its Vietnamese counterpart to develop a seaport in Vietnam, the government spokesman has said. The instruction was made at the two-day monthly cabinet meeting for May that closed ...