News
China, Laos to build $6.3 bln railway project by 2020
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 ...
Promotion of Lao local wood industry to improve livelihoods
The Value Adding to Lao PDR Plantation Timber Products 2 (VALTIP2) project is promoting the improvement of livelihoods for farmers and processing workers in the Lao wood industry. VALTIP2 on 11 November officially opened a veneer processing and products research centre at the Faculty of Forestry, National ...
New law to strengthen civil servant management in Laos
All Lao civil servants, including leaders will have new uniform regulations imposed on them if a newly drafted law on public service is promulgated. This is the perspective of Laos’ new proposed civil service management law drafted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is responsible for ...
Floating Vientiane pump stations to access river water
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 ...
Vietnam plans Hanoi-Vientiane highway project: report
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 ...
Bokeo police confiscate over 100,000 amphetamine pills
Bokeo provincial police confiscated over 100,000 amphetamine pills and arrested two drug traffickers in Phonthong village, Paktha district, last week. Head of the Bokeo provincial Public Security Headquarters, Colonel Lamphai Yotpaphai, told Vientiane Times on 11 November that police received a tip off about illegal drugs being ...
Lao officials warn about overuse of antibiotics
It is estimated that 90 percent of private hospitals and medical clinics in Laos give too much antibiotics to their patients because they lack training in prescribing antibiotics. However this carries many risks. Director General of the Health Care Department under the Ministry of Health, Associate Prof. ...
Lao Ministry imposes ban on log exports
Laos’ Ministry of Industry and Commerce has imposed an export ban on logs and unprocessed sawn wood following the prohibition instruction given by the government. The move aims to add value to wood resources by processing them domestically before they are exported. Recently, the ministry issued an order ...
Nam Theun 2 dam generates funds for poverty reduction
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 ...
Overpass mulled as solution to Vientiane's traffic snarls
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 ...
