Vietnam to Check Visitors from Laos for Coronavirus
Vietnam has announced that the country will carry out mandatory health checks on people entering Vietnam from Cambodia and Laos.
Those who cross the border from Cambodia and Laos must undergo health checks at the border if they wish to enter Vietnam, said Vietnam’s Foreign Affairs Ministry Deputy Spokesman Doan Khac Viet.
The rule also applies to those who have traveled to China, through China, and areas where there’s been a coronavirus outbreak for around 14 days.
As of February 20, Vietnam had 16 confirmed cases of Coronavirus infection, of whom 14 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.
Meanwhile, Laos has not seen any confirmed cases so far.
Lao authorities have warned people not to travel to virus outbreak areas and have installed thermal scanners at border crossings with China and at other strategic locations to stop the virus from entering the country.
In addition, the government has also urged people to be on their guard and take precautions.
~The Laotian Times~
2020年3月2日星期一
2019年11月11日星期一
Nine Border Checkpoints to Discontinue Visa On Arrival Services
Nine Border Checkpoints to Discontinue Visa On Arrival Services
According to a notice issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday, nine of Laos’s border checkpoints will discontinue providing visa on arrival services to tourists.
The notice orders the closure of visa on arrival units at nine border checkpoints:
– Pang Hok (Phongsaly Province) bordering Vietnam
– Nam Soy (Huaphanh Province) bordering Vietnam
– Nam Kan (Xieng Khouang Province) bordering Vietnam
– Nam Ngeun (Xayaboury Province) bordering Thailand
– Nam Heuang (Xayaboury Province) bordering Thailand
– Nam Phao (Khammouane Province) bordering Vietnam
– Na Phao (Khammouane Province) bordering Vietnam
– Savannakhet International Airport
– Phou Keua (Attapeu Province) bordering Vietnam
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been tasked with coordinating the closure of the visa units and is to ensure that no disruptions are caused at border checkpoints.
Laos launched an e-visa service earlier this year, but so far this is only available for use at three checkpoints; Wattay International Airport, The First Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge, and Luang Prabang International Airport.
~Laotian Times~
According to a notice issued by the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday, nine of Laos’s border checkpoints will discontinue providing visa on arrival services to tourists.
The notice orders the closure of visa on arrival units at nine border checkpoints:
– Pang Hok (Phongsaly Province) bordering Vietnam
– Nam Soy (Huaphanh Province) bordering Vietnam
– Nam Kan (Xieng Khouang Province) bordering Vietnam
– Nam Ngeun (Xayaboury Province) bordering Thailand
– Nam Heuang (Xayaboury Province) bordering Thailand
– Nam Phao (Khammouane Province) bordering Vietnam
– Na Phao (Khammouane Province) bordering Vietnam
– Savannakhet International Airport
– Phou Keua (Attapeu Province) bordering Vietnam
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been tasked with coordinating the closure of the visa units and is to ensure that no disruptions are caused at border checkpoints.
Laos launched an e-visa service earlier this year, but so far this is only available for use at three checkpoints; Wattay International Airport, The First Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge, and Luang Prabang International Airport.
~Laotian Times~
2019年7月10日星期三
成为亚细安物流枢纽 泰国要建跨亚洲多国高铁网络
成为亚细安物流枢纽 泰国要建跨亚洲多国高铁网络
泰媒报道，高铁工程主要分为泰国到老挝及中国南部、泰国到柬埔寨、泰国到马来西亚和新加坡，以及曼谷到清迈四条路线，全长达3193公里，造价约914亿新元。
（曼谷讯）泰国政府希望通过一个横跨亚洲多国的高铁网络，致力推动泰国发展成为亚细安的物流枢纽。
《曼谷邮报》报道，这项庞大工程主要分为泰国到老挝及中国南部、泰国到柬埔寨、泰国到马来西亚和新加坡，以及曼谷到清迈四条路线，全长达3193公里，造价约2.07万亿泰铢（约914亿新元）。
可从中国开到新加坡
泰国交通部副部长拜林说，泰国政府希望这个高铁网络可以从中国一路开往新加坡。他说：“到时候，人们就可从曼谷城区挽赐（Bang Sue）乘高铁北上中国北京或南下新加坡。”
连接曼谷和毗邻老挝的东北部廊开府（Nong Khai）的第一阶段工程正在兴建，预计2023年竣工。这一段铁路长达608公里，落成之后，将会成为曼谷通往老挝的主要运输系统。
下一段铁路将把泰国和老挝边境与老挝首都万象连接，最后一段铁路则会将万象与中国云南省边城磨憨镇相连接。
据一个不愿具名的老挝官员说，万象与磨憨镇之间长达414公里的铁路至今已经完成了55%，衔接万象与廊开的铁路工程也已经展开。
他说：“这是一个将我们从内陆国家转变为有土地联系的国家。”他指，目前人们要从万象前往磨憨镇需要两天，但如后有了高铁，来往这两地“就只需要三个小时”。
老挝希望跨国高铁网络能促进经济发展。受访官员预计，有了这条高铁路线，未来到访老挝的中国游客每年可能多达1000万至2000万人次。
泰国也希望借助这个跨国高铁网络来刺激其经济发展，尤其是该铁路网络将把廊开与泰国东部经济走廊（EEC）衔接起来；泰国东部经济走廊是在泰国东部沿海三府北柳、春武里和罗勇设立的国家经济特区，旨在将泰国东部打造为一个现代智能生产的工业中心。
由于项目的重要性和成本非常高，政府应该认真地与中国谈判，并研究随后的利益和条件。从长远来看，我们需要能自己照顾铁路的一切运作，而毋需依靠中国。——泰中战略研究中心前主任阿克松斯里
泰国国立法政大学经济学院副教授、泰中战略研究中心前主任阿克松斯里表示，高铁网络是中国倡议“一带一路”计划的一部分，落成后将会提高泰国的竞争力和与邻国的联系。
不过她指出，发展高铁网络存在一定担忧，主要是在软件和系统安全方面，其他可能影响铁路网络建造项目的障碍还包括“高建筑和征收成本”。放眼望去，泰国日后决定购买中国科技时，也必须明智地进行谈判。
她说：“由于这个项目的重要性和其成本非常高，政府应该认真地与中国谈判，并研究随后的利益和条件。从长远来看，我们需要能自己照顾铁路的一切运作，而毋需依靠中国。”
~联合早报~
泰媒报道，高铁工程主要分为泰国到老挝及中国南部、泰国到柬埔寨、泰国到马来西亚和新加坡，以及曼谷到清迈四条路线，全长达3193公里，造价约914亿新元。
（曼谷讯）泰国政府希望通过一个横跨亚洲多国的高铁网络，致力推动泰国发展成为亚细安的物流枢纽。
《曼谷邮报》报道，这项庞大工程主要分为泰国到老挝及中国南部、泰国到柬埔寨、泰国到马来西亚和新加坡，以及曼谷到清迈四条路线，全长达3193公里，造价约2.07万亿泰铢（约914亿新元）。
可从中国开到新加坡
泰国交通部副部长拜林说，泰国政府希望这个高铁网络可以从中国一路开往新加坡。他说：“到时候，人们就可从曼谷城区挽赐（Bang Sue）乘高铁北上中国北京或南下新加坡。”
连接曼谷和毗邻老挝的东北部廊开府（Nong Khai）的第一阶段工程正在兴建，预计2023年竣工。这一段铁路长达608公里，落成之后，将会成为曼谷通往老挝的主要运输系统。
下一段铁路将把泰国和老挝边境与老挝首都万象连接，最后一段铁路则会将万象与中国云南省边城磨憨镇相连接。
据一个不愿具名的老挝官员说，万象与磨憨镇之间长达414公里的铁路至今已经完成了55%，衔接万象与廊开的铁路工程也已经展开。
他说：“这是一个将我们从内陆国家转变为有土地联系的国家。”他指，目前人们要从万象前往磨憨镇需要两天，但如后有了高铁，来往这两地“就只需要三个小时”。
老挝希望跨国高铁网络能促进经济发展。受访官员预计，有了这条高铁路线，未来到访老挝的中国游客每年可能多达1000万至2000万人次。
泰国也希望借助这个跨国高铁网络来刺激其经济发展，尤其是该铁路网络将把廊开与泰国东部经济走廊（EEC）衔接起来；泰国东部经济走廊是在泰国东部沿海三府北柳、春武里和罗勇设立的国家经济特区，旨在将泰国东部打造为一个现代智能生产的工业中心。
由于项目的重要性和成本非常高，政府应该认真地与中国谈判，并研究随后的利益和条件。从长远来看，我们需要能自己照顾铁路的一切运作，而毋需依靠中国。——泰中战略研究中心前主任阿克松斯里
泰国国立法政大学经济学院副教授、泰中战略研究中心前主任阿克松斯里表示，高铁网络是中国倡议“一带一路”计划的一部分，落成后将会提高泰国的竞争力和与邻国的联系。
不过她指出，发展高铁网络存在一定担忧，主要是在软件和系统安全方面，其他可能影响铁路网络建造项目的障碍还包括“高建筑和征收成本”。放眼望去，泰国日后决定购买中国科技时，也必须明智地进行谈判。
她说：“由于这个项目的重要性和其成本非常高，政府应该认真地与中国谈判，并研究随后的利益和条件。从长远来看，我们需要能自己照顾铁路的一切运作，而毋需依靠中国。”
~联合早报~
2018年1月14日星期日
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~
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~
2014年6月7日星期六
Border crossings with Vietnam
There are at least six border crossings that can be used by foreigners. These include:
Donsavanh - Lao Bao - to/from Savannakhet
Keo Nua Pass
Lak Sao - to/from Khammouan Province
Nam Can - to/from Plain of Jars
Na Meo - to/from Sam Neua
Tay Trang - to/from Muang Khua and Nong Khiaw
Bo Y (nearest town on Vietnamese side being Ngoc Hoi and on Lao side Attapeu)
~Info courtesy of Wikitravel~
Donsavanh - Lao Bao - to/from Savannakhet
Keo Nua Pass
Lak Sao - to/from Khammouan Province
Nam Can - to/from Plain of Jars
Na Meo - to/from Sam Neua
Tay Trang - to/from Muang Khua and Nong Khiaw
Bo Y (nearest town on Vietnamese side being Ngoc Hoi and on Lao side Attapeu)
~Info courtesy of Wikitravel~
2013年7月7日星期日
Vietnam steps up investments in Laos
Vietnam steps up investments in Laos
Online Trade and Investment Portal and Consulate General of Lao will hold a workshop in Champasak Province in Laos to introduce a Trade, Tourism and Investment Program from July 22-26, to tap the rich potential market in Laos.
The leaders sign cooperation plans (photo:SGGP)
According to ITPC, Laos is a potential market with rich mineral resources, besides having a common border with Vietnam along ten provinces stretching across 2,067 kilometers.
In the past few years, Vietnam has been investing in Laos and has become the second largest investor in Lao after China.
However, in the commercial sector, Vietnamese goods have not expanded as expected with limited representative agencies in Laos.
To overcome this disadvantage, ITPC will constantly hold investment promotion programs so that Vietnamese goods can access the Laos market and increase exports.
~News courtesy of SGGP~
Online Trade and Investment Portal and Consulate General of Lao will hold a workshop in Champasak Province in Laos to introduce a Trade, Tourism and Investment Program from July 22-26, to tap the rich potential market in Laos.
The leaders sign cooperation plans (photo:SGGP)
According to ITPC, Laos is a potential market with rich mineral resources, besides having a common border with Vietnam along ten provinces stretching across 2,067 kilometers.
In the past few years, Vietnam has been investing in Laos and has become the second largest investor in Lao after China.
However, in the commercial sector, Vietnamese goods have not expanded as expected with limited representative agencies in Laos.
To overcome this disadvantage, ITPC will constantly hold investment promotion programs so that Vietnamese goods can access the Laos market and increase exports.
~News courtesy of SGGP~
2013年2月27日星期三
Vietnam-Laos highway link road inaugurated
Vietnam-Laos highway link road inaugurated
The Vietnam-Laos highway link road was officially inaugurated at a ceremony held at the international border of Panghok in Phongsaly Province yesterday, February 24.
The 68.2 kilometer highway road links Khoa District in Phongsaly Province in Laos to Tay Trang border gate in Dien Bien Province in Vietnam. The project was financed by the Vietnamese government at a total cost of US$43 million.
Attending the inaugural ceremony were Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad and other high ranking officials of the two countries.
In his speech, Dep. PM Phuc highlighted the traditional friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation relations between the two countries.
He also stressed that the National Highway was of great strategic importance for both Vietnam and Laos, enhancing trade between the northwestern provinces of Vietnam and the northern provinces of Laos in particular.
Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad said that the National Highway was of great importance for the socio-economic growth of Laos.
He said this important road would contribute to improving infrastructure and help link Laos to other countries in the region.
~News courtesy of SGGP~
2012年12月6日星期四
Viet, Laos, Camb focus on development triangle
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia focus on development triangle
A conference on trade, investment and tourism for the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam development triangle took place in the central highland province of Kon Tum yesterday, December 5.
More than 400 domestic and foreign businesses participated in the conference.
Two-way trade between Vietnam and Laos, and Vietnam and Cambodia is estimated to reach a combined total of more than US$4 billion this year.
Vietnam is investing in 50 projects worth close to $1.7 billion in Laos, and 25 projects valued at $1.5 billion in Cambodia.
At the conference, Pham Thi Hong Thanh, deputy head of the Department of Asia-Pacific Market under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, pointed out the obstacles faced by business circles of the three countries such as transport, lending requirements and low consumer demand.
Youn Heng, director of the Department of Evaluation and Incentives under the Cambodian Council for Development, said his country will boost investment in hydropower, thermal power and the power transmission network in the future.
Besides, firms are facing a workforce shortage in Laos and are challenged by the distance between Ho Chi Minh City and Champassak Province. Multinational trade traffic through the south of Laos via northeast Cambodia to the southern provinces of Vietnam is slow.
Cao Viet Sinh, Vietnam’s deputy minister of Planning and Investment, said in future, ministries and agencies of the three countries need to accelerate the construction and completion of the investment and business law; policies relating to taxes, customs, labor; administrative procedures relating to licenses, investment, business--ensuring transparency, the coherence from the central to local levels in order to reduce the time, costs for investors, improve the competitiveness of enterprises.
Cao Viet Sinh, deputy minister of Planning and Investment, stressed that to exploit the regions potential one needs to improve infrastructure, offer incentives to encourage the participation of all economic sectors, and accelerate the implementation of the triangle’s development master plan approved by leaders of the three governments.
The countries also need to complete the investment and business legal framework, policies on tax, customs and labor, and administrative procedures to ensure transparency and synchronicity at all levels of governance from central to grassroots level, Sinh added.
The Cambodia–Laos–Vietnam development triangle comprises of 13 border provinces of the three countries. Initiated by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in Vientiane in 1999, the area was established to enhance solidarity and cooperation for socio-economic development, poverty reduction and security in the region.
Meanwhile a trade fair was organized in the central highland province of Kon Tum where handmade crafts by artisans from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were on exhibit.
The fair opened on December 4 and brought together 700 businesses that are displaying their high-quality products in 360 stalls.
The fair is part of a series of events to herald the 8th Conference of the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia Triangle Development Coordinating Committee and the 100th anniversary of Kon Tum Province (February 9, 1913).
~News courtesy of SGGP~
2012年11月15日星期四
Laos to build railway to Vietnam
Laos to build railway to Vietnam
Construction work on a US$5 billion (195 billion baht) railway linking Laos to Vietnam is scheduled to begin in January, media reported on Wednesday.
Giant Consolidated Limited, the Malaysian investor in the project, expects to begin construction in January on the 220-kilometre-long track linking Savannakhet to Laobao on the Lao-Vietnamese border and complete it within four years, the Socio-Economic newspaper reported.
The contract to build and operate the railway was signed on Nov 5. Giant Consolidated Limited was granted a 50-year concession to operate the rail link, which will form part of the East-West Corridor linking Malaysia to Thailand, Laos and Vietnam by rail.
The railway scheme, to accommodate trains with top speeds of 120 kilometres per hour, will require the construction of 11 stations and 14 bridges, the newspaper said.
Last month, the National Assembly approved the government's plan to build a $7 billion railway linking Vientiane to the Lao-China border. The project is expected to receive a loan from the Chinese Export Bank.
~News courtesy of Bangkok Post~
2012年10月17日星期三
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