Airport bus service to start next week

Airport bus service to start next week

A new shuttle bus service, operating between Wattay International Airport and the Talat Sao Mall central bus station using vehicles donated by Kyoto City Bus, will begin on January 18.

Deputy Manager of the Vientiane City 2 Bus Service, Mr Sithiphon Chanthavong, said yesterday that shuttle buses will run daily from 9am until 10pm, following a trial run on Monday.

Buses will leave every 40 minutes from the airport and central bus station with passengers charged 15,000 kip for a one way trip.

The airport run is currently only serviced by taxis which charge passengers about 58,000 kip (US$7) to destinations in the city centre.

“The shuttle bus will set down at 16 bus stops from the airport along Souphanouvong Road, past the Presidential Palace and en route to the Talat Sao Mall central bus station,” Mr Sithiphon said.

Passengers will soon be able to download an app on Android smartphones to hire a taxi and check on bus routes and timetables after it is officially launched next week, he added.

The Vientiane City 2 Bus Service recently launched the Talat Sao Mall to Lao-ITECC route to encourage more people to use public transport and reduce traffic congestion in the city centre.

Passengers can catch a ride between Lao-ITECC and Talat Sao, with 18 stops in between, for just 4,000 kip one way.

Kyoto City Government donated 34 buses to the Vientiane Public Works and Transport Department at a ceremony held on November 29, 2016, at Kyoto City Hall Plaza in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, Japan.

The State Bus Enterprise reported recently that the number of passengers using public transport in urban areas rose by about 20 percent last year.

The public bus station in Vientiane handles 129 buses including 42 new Japanese buses, which is sufficient to cover the main routes through the city.

The enterprise is now installing new bus stops across the capital where buses will only set down and pick up passengers to prevent random hail and ride pickups which add to traffic congestion.

~News courtesy of Vientiane Times~

Laos dances to survive between China and Vietnam

Laos dances to survive between China and Vietnam

While often portrayed as a pliant client to its larger neighbors, Vientiane's balancing act is more astute than widely recognized



Lao dancers perform during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' gala dinner at the National Convention Center in Vientiane, Laos, September 7, 2016. Photo: AFP/Saul Loeb

With its sparse 6.7 million population, land-locked Laos is often cast as a passive victim of pell-mell Chinese expansionism, a rich source of raw materials its giant neighbor craves and a virtual truck stop on the way to Thailand and the more prosperous countries of mainland Southeast Asia.

Already forging ahead with the 414-kilometer Kunming-Vientiane railway, China now seems intent on poking a stick in Hanoi’s eye with plans for a major economic zone on the Bolaven Plateau, covering much of southern Champasak province between the Mekong River and Vietnam’s Central Highlands.

But unlike the railway, the scheme to transform an area supposedly five times the size of Hong Kong into a green wonderland built around industrial agriculture and tourism could well demonstrate that the popular picture of a hapless Laos caught in China’s embrace is both misleading and quite possibly wrong.

For starters, vast tracts of land on the southern panhandle’s 1,000-meter-high plateau, with its cooler climate, rich volcanic soil, stunning waterfalls and US$120 million-a-year coffee industry, have already been acquired in one way or another by the wealthy Vientiane elite.

Also, as much as it might try to facilitate such an ambitious and politically-sensitive project, Laos’ communist government is bound by its own laws not to allow more than 10,000 hectares for each individual investor or joint venture.



That might be avoided with the use of subsidiaries, but, as University of Wisconsin professor Ian Baird points out, a lesser known reality is that as all-powerful as the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) appears to be, it is the local governments that make the final decisions.

“If an investor runs into opposition, the central government is always going to back down,” says Baird, a long-time student of the communist state. “Local officials are deferential to the Vietnamese, but not to the Chinese, who can’t seem to translate all that economic activity into political power.”

The Chinese presence in southern Laos isn’t new. North of the plateau in neighboring Savannakhet province, China Minmetals is still operating the Sepon copper mine it acquired in 2009 as part of a wider US$1.4 billion deal to buy most of the assets from Australia’s indebted OZ Minerals.

But Chinese investors have already suffered setbacks with the failure of China Non-ferrous Metals International Mining Co (CNMIM) to proceed with a US$4 billion bauxite project in Champassak and the significant downsizing of a major urban development project in Vientiane, the capital.

Baird and International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) researcher Danielle Tan have separately reached the same conclusion that Lao authorities are playing Vietnam off against China, a strategy that could determine Laos’ long-term future as an independent state.



Lao President Bounnhang Vorachith with Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam December 20, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Kham

Indeed, there are strong indications that even the US$5.4 billion Kumning-Vientiane railway may not have got off the ground without the Lao government agreeing to a similar 220-kilometer rail link from Savannakhet to the Vietnamese border town of Lao Bao.

The electrified double-track line, to be built by Malaysia’s Giant Consolidated Ltd, will follow Highway 9 which already serves as a trade corridor between northeast Thailand and the South China Sea port of Danang in central Vietnam.

Chinese money may be welcome, says Baird, but it isn’t everything. More important are the Lao regime’s ties with Vietnam, forged during the Indochina War, and memories of China’s efforts from 1979-1985 to foment an anti-government rebellion among Hmong tribal holdouts in Laos.

Indeed, the 10th Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Congress in early 2016 saw the quiet removal from the 11-member Politburo of deputy prime minister and eighth-ranked Somsavat Lengsavad, 72, a wealthy Sino-Lao businessman regarded as the last true Beijing loyalist on the party’s highest body.

Most Politburo members are Vietnamese-trained war veterans, including general secretary and president Bounnhang Vorachith, 80, who joined the revolutionary Pathet Lao in 1952, later serving as its chief political commissar and then as governor of his native Savannakhet province.

One notable exception is popular prime minister Thongloun Sisoulith, 72, who was educated in the Soviet Union and Vietnam before joining the government, rising to state planning minister, deputy prime minister and foreign minister in the early 2000s.



Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith (R) of Laos meets with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at Great Hall of the People in Beijing, November 28, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Thomas Peter

Even today, Lao officials still study in Vietnam, not China, which means the Vietnamese retain more clout in the Lao countryside and are considered superior to the Chinese, politically and culturally, in dealing with provincial governments and local villagers.

Stalled up to now by a lack of funding, China’s involvement in the Bolaven project was grandly described in a recent Chinese news release as “a new step in the Sino-Laos strategic partnership,” language that rival Hanoi would not have appreciated.

The venture is spearheaded by China’s Guangcai Investment Group, a social entrepreneurship program created in 1995 by private businessmen to “combat poverty and contribute to regional development.” In other words, to put a happier face on Chinese investment.

Guangcai’s apparent partners in the project are state-owned China Communications Construction and China Construction Engineering, the China Development Bank, the Ex-Im Bank of China and Hong Kong-based Galaxy Financial Holdings.

Until now, Chinese migration and capital has focused on the northern Lao provinces of Luang Namtha, Oudomxay, Bokeo and Phongsaly provinces, transforming the border region, previously known for semi-subsistence farming, into a market-orientated agricultural economy.

The once-remote village of Boten, the staging ground for a planned cross-border economic zone, is also the starting point for the new China-built railway and the 990-kilometer expressway linking the Yunnan province capital of Kunming with Thailand’s Chiang Rai-Bangkok highway.



A Lao Hmong hill tribe woman and child at the border town of Boten, a special economic zone hired by China in Luang Namtha, Laos. Photo: AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam

Following the same road the Chinese built in the 1960s to supply Thai communist guerrillas, the highway was finally completed in 2013 with the opening of the Ban Houay Say-Chiang Rai bridge across the Mekong River, the fourth to span the waterway.

In opening the way for an onrush of Chinese companies and migrants, it is that north-south economic corridor and other improvements to the border road network that has critics questioning whether Laos is ceding sovereignty to its northern region to China.

While private firms have built casinos and invested in other tourism ventures, China’s state-owned firms have concentrated on agriculture, particularly rubber cultivation, hydro-electric power and mining, notably copper, gold, bauxite, lignite, tin, iron and zinc.

More than a third of Chinese investment has gone into small-scale hydropower projects on Mekong tributaries under a build-operate-transfer model, notably different to China’s involvement in Indonesia’s badly-flawed 10,000-megawatt build-transfer power program spanning 2004-2014.

But it is also the main financier for three planned run-of-the-river projects on the mainstream Mekong, including the 920-megawatt (MW) Pak Beng plant in western Oudomxay province, and the 1,320MW Pak Lay and 700MW Sanakham ventures further downstream in Xayaboury.

While Vietnam’s foreign direct investment, mostly in hydro-power, mining, transportation and plantations, has slowed since a strong surge in 2005-2010, it still claims to match China’s total US$5.3 billion, with Thailand, Laos’ main hydropower customer, trailing at US$4.4 billion.



A handout picture of the Nam Theun 2 hydropower station in the Lao central province of Khammouane. Photo: AFP/Nam Theun 

Power Company Vietnam’s biggest project is a US$522 million potash plant in southern Khammounan province, but Star Telecom’s Unitel network, a joint venture between Hanoi’s military-run Viettel and Lao Asia Telecom, controls half of Laos’ telecommunications market with annual revenues of US$700 million.

Another major investment milestone was the completion in 2016 of a 190-kilometer, US$240 million cross-border power transmission line linking the Vietnamese-funded Xekaman I and 3 hydro-plants near southern Attapeu province with Vietnam’s Central Highlands capital of Pleiku.

China clearly has the financial advantage, to a point where economists have expressed public concern that China’s outward direct investment deals do not provide sufficient returns and that state-owned enterprises are not held responsible if a project fails.

In an unusually critical opinion piece in 2015 – two years after the unveiling of the One Belt, One Road initiative that lies behind many of China’s new investments — Peking University professor Yiping Huang pointed out that such “blind spending” was risky and a waste of foreign reserves.

Critics also note that while Southeast Asia needs to spend an estimated US$8 trillion on infrastructure over the next decade, many recipient governments lack the ability to craft bankable development plans, either because of inefficiency or corruption.

That may apply to Laos, given its limited human resources, but Indonesia has also been found wanting with China’s showcase Jakarta-Bandung fast-rail project struggling to get off the ground because of the same land issues it is expected to face on Laos’ Bolaven Plateau.

Chinese and Vietnamese investment has clearly had a harmful impact on the environment and on local communities, with illegal logging decimating the country’s forests and thousands of villagers being uprooted for hydro-dams and industrial agricultural projects.

But IIAS researcher Tan maintained in a 2014 research paper that Laos’ communist leaders have little to fear from their giant northern neighbor and that they may well be paying a worthwhile price for China to act as mediator between Laos and the global economy.

~courtesy of Asia Times~

South East Asia in the grip of chilly weather

South East Asia in the grip of chilly weather

Temperatures across South-east Asia have dipped beyond the norm in recent days, with non-stop rain and strong winds contributing to chillier tropics.

The thermostat has dropped to as low as 22°C in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and 17ºC in Bangkok, cold bouts have been reported in Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, and ice slabs have even been found in parts of Myanmar.

The weather has become so chilly that Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak tweeted on Friday (Jan 12): "Wow, Malaysia's weather is really cold today, just like in Jeddah!" He had just returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department attributed the chill to the north-east monsoon, but did not expect temperatures to dip further. The agency forecasts all-day rain to last until Sunday in Kuala Lumpur.

Thailand has been experiencing a cold snap since last month, with fog blanketing its northern regions and frost forming on mountains.

In Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, the temperature fell to as low as 8ºC, the lowest this winter for the city.

Though Cambodia was also struck by the cold weather this week, it was not as bad as last month, when the temperature plunge caused a sweater-shopping frenzy, and baby elephants had to wear hand-knitted coats.

The Philippines has been experiencing generally colder weather too, a result of the El Nino-La Nina weather dynamics, and the chilling Arctic air called the polar vortex. "We have seen a cold blast in the Pacific and Atlantic regions," said the local weather bureau's forecaster Nikkos Penaranda. The lowest temperature recorded recently was 12.2ºC in the northern city of Baguio on Jan 1.

Meanwhile, Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said it recorded moderately lower-than-usual temperatures in the Riau Islands, an Indonesian province closest to Singapore, and in Nusa Tenggara Timur, east of the country's main tourist island of Bali. On Friday, the two locations registered temperatures of 23ºC to 25ºC.

All other provinces are seeing relatively normal temperatures, state weather forecaster Risda Novikarani told The Straits Times.

Over in South Asia, the northern parts of India were also in the midst of a cold spell, but meteorological officials said this was well within the range for winter months. "Temperatures have fallen and the cold wave condition is more severe in January than December," said Mahesh Palawat, director of private weather forecaster Skymet. "It is a normal winter."

According to India's Meteorological Department, minimum temperatures in most parts of northern India this week continued to be between 5ºC and 10ºC, and would remain so until Monday (Jan 15).

~The Straits Times/Asia News Network~

Air Busan adds Busan-Vientiane route

Air Busan adds Busan-Vientiane route

Air Busan Co., a South Korean budget carrier, said Monday it has begun to offer flights on a route from a provincial airport to Vientiane, Laos, as part of its route diversification efforts.

Air Busan began servicing the route from the southern port city of Busan, 453 kilometers south of Seoul, to the capital city of Laos with a 195-seat A321 passenger jet, the company said in a statement.

The budget carrier unit of Asiana Airlines Inc. currently operates 15 A321-200 jets and six smaller A320-200s, all leased and with up to 220 seats, to serve four domestic routes and 24 international routes. In 2020, it plans to bring in the A321-200 NEO.

South Korean airlines have diversified their routes to offset lower travel demand from China amid ongoing political tensions between the two countries over the deployment of an advanced U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea to deter North Korean provocations.

In March, Beijing banned the sale of group tour packages to South Korea in apparent retaliation against the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, which it argues could be used to spy on its military.


Air Busan's A321-200 passenger jet (Yonhap) Air Busan's A321-200 passenger jet (Yonhap)

~News courtesy of Yonhap News~

Laos pins hopes on welcoming 5 million visitors in 2018

Laos pins hopes on welcoming 5 million visitors in 2018


Luang Prabang in Laos (Source: visit-laos.com)

Laos launched a ceremony to initiate it National Tourism Year 2018 in the capital city Vientiane on October 28.

The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Bosengkham Vongdala, among others.

Minister Bosengkham Vongdala said the country’s tourism development policy has worked productively over the past years.

In 2000, the country greeted only 737,208 visitors and earned revenues of 113.9 million USD. In 2015, the figures were 4,684,429 visitors and 725.4 million USD.

It is estimated that the number of tourists to the country will hit over 6.2 million who bring in revenues of over 993.4 million USD by 2020.

The Lao Government has set to attract around 5 million tourists and reaped earnings of 900 million USD for 2018.

The National Tourism Year 2018 will focus on explorations of the country’s history, nature, and cultural value preservation and promotion.

The Vientiane event will be followed by a series of activities to be held at Laos’s embassies in Europe, Asia and other countries around the world alongside traditional festivals in localities across Laos.

Tourism is regarded as the economic spearhead sector, which has received a lot of priorities from the Government.

The Lao Government viewed that tourism development will enable it to expand cooperation with other countries.

~Courtesy of Vientiane Times~

Asean to open skies further

Asean to open skies further

Asean countries signed the protocol to put into place a package of commitments to further liberalise air transport services in the region.

At the 23rd Asean Transport Ministers Meeting, the countries also agreed to improve connectivity among member states.

Transport ministers and senior officials from Asean member countries attended the two-day meeting. Also present were dialogue partners from China, Japan and South Korea.

Among the highlights of the meeting was the conclusion of the “tenth package of commitments on air transport services under the Asean Framework of Services”.

Liow said the ministers also signed the protocol of domestic code-share rights, allowing code­-sharing arrangements between the marketing airline and domestic airline in Asean member countries.

“This would increase connectivity between Malaysia and other Asean member states.

“At the same time, it would enable designated airlines of Malaysia to offer their passengers a wide range of travel options which can extend beyond the airlines’ own network and route structure,” he added.

Liow said the ministers signed the Mutual Recognition Arrangement on Flight Crew Licensing, which would facilitate air services to complement liberalisation efforts in Asean, and ensure the highest degree of security in international air transport.

They also reached an agreement on the Facilitation of Cross Border Transport of Passengers by Road Vehicles.

“This is to promote seamless cross-border mobility of passengers between Asean member states,” said Liow.

He added that the ministers had concluded the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the authorities in charge of aircraft accident investigation under the Asean-China partnership.

“This agreement would further strengthen Malaysia’s cooperation with China in relation to aircraft accident and incident investigations, sharing experiences and expertise in various specialist fields, equipment and research,” he said.

~News courtesy of The Star~

开放联号航运权 亚细安区内航班选择增多

开放联号航运权 亚细安区内航班选择增多

亚细安成员国将开放各自的国内联号航运权，让在亚细安区域内飞行的航班共享班号。如此一来，航空公司可在不使用旗下飞机的情况下，扩大跨国飞行网络，为搭客提供更多航班选择。这也有助促进亚细安各国人民和货物的流通，有利于经济与商业发展，也能扩展旅游业。

过去两天在我国举行的第23届亚细安交通部长会议昨天结束，与会国在本次会议中签署了五项协议，并采纳六项计划，重申致力于加强亚细安成员国与对话伙伴国之间交通合作的承诺。

这包括进一步开放区内的航空服务、改善亚细安航空飞行的安全和效率，以及促进乘客的无缝跨境流动。

各国部长昨天签订两项开放航空服务的协议，其中包括开放联号航运（code-share）权，让在亚细安区域内飞行的航班都能提供联号航运服务，搭客也能享有较便利的转机登机与行李托运服务。

例如，一家本地航空公司和一家泰国航空公司合作提供联号航运服务，搭客只需订购一次机票，便能先飞往曼谷，再转国内航班到泰国的另一目的地。同样的，原本不直飞本地的泰国航空公司，也能让搭客通过一次订票，先飞曼谷再转飞新加坡。

另一项协议则是在亚细安服务业框架协议（ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services，简称AFAS）下，落实第10项配套，以求逐步减少亚细安航空运输辅助服务的贸易限制。新加坡将对提供销售与营销航空运输服务的公司，提高它们所能允许的最高海外股本参与率，从51％提高到70％。

此外，各国采纳了亚细安航空交通管理总体规划，目的是打造无缝的亚细安空中交通，以更一体化的方式改善区域的航空流量。一旦全面落实，料将改善航空交通管理与安全，空域容量也能增加，航班延误的情况因此有望减少，航空公司的运作成本也会降低。

各国也签署了协议，相互承认对方颁发的机组人员执照。

成员国各500辆客运巴士 可享简化出入境要求

在陆路交通方面，亚细安成员国签署了促进陆路客运跨境的亚细安框架协议，方便客运巴士在各国之间跨境穿行。

按照这项协议，每个成员国都有500辆巴士的配额，可享有简化出入境的要求。这些必须是非固定行程的客运巴士，如旅游巴士。固定行程的跨境巴士在路线、停靠站、巴士数量、技术要求及车费方面，仍得取得邻国的同意。

与对话伙伴国的合作方面，亚细安将与中国加强在航空事故调查的合作。

负责调查航空事故的官方机构与中国民用航空局签署了谅解备忘录，同意相互分享调查航空事故方面的设施与专才资源，也相互提供培训、分享安全资料，及安排观察员参与调查等。这有助提升调查员的能力与专业水平。

基础建设统筹部长兼交通部长许文远为会议主持闭幕式时说：“我们对亚细安交通合作的承诺将助我们实现‘2020年亚细安愿景’，以及‘2025年亚细安互联互通总体规划’。这将提高人民的生活质量，制造良好的就业机会，也能为区域带来稳定与和平。”

第24届亚细安交通部长会议明年将于泰国举行。

~联合早报网~