China Plows Ahead with High-Speed Rail Line for Southeast Asia
Voice of America
29 Jun 2020, 00:05 GMT+10

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - The coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe looks to have done little, at least in Laos, to slow China's grand plans for a high-speed rail line linking its landlocked interior to the bustling ports of Singapore through mainland Southeast Asia.

Work crews started laying track along the first 414-kilometer leg of the line through the country in March, five years after breaking ground. With most of the many dozen tunnels and bridges it will need to cut through Laos' mountainous north now bored and built, state media this month reported that the $6 billion project was 90% done. Service is set to start by 2022.

Analysts say the full line remains a vital part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative. Starting in Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province, it will help the remote region tap into some of Southeast Asia's largest economies, while boosting China's political sway over them in the process.

"The rail from Kunming to Singapore is a high priority for China. It will allow poor regions of western China, which are now landlocked, increased access to wealthier parts of Southeast Asia. It will boost trade and tourism," said Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

However, the potential rewards come with some risk.

A 2018 report by the U.S.-based Center for Global Development lists Laos among the countries hosting BRI projects that face the highest debt risk. A more recent report on BRI debts by Australia's Lowy Institute said Laos owed more of its foreign debt to China, some 45%, than any of the other nine countries selected for its study. Much of it is going to pay for the railway. The government has borrowed about $1.5 billion from the state-owned Export-Import Bank of China to help pay for its 30% stake in the project, according to the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
https://www.vietnamnews.net/news/265601 ... heast-asia

Lao gov't orders full-scale preparation for China-Laos railway opening
Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-01

VIENTIANE, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Lao government has ordered full-scale preparations for the opening of the China-Laos railway, as Laos and China count down to Dec. 2, the planned date of its inauguration.

The cabinet gave the order at its monthly meeting for October, which ended last Friday, local daily Vientiane Times reported on Monday.

Chaired by Lao Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh, the cabinet meeting told authorities in charge to accelerate action to fulfill plans to attract investment in facilities alongside the railway.

The meeting called on the relevant departments to prepare for the construction of expressways as well as repair damaged roads.

Authorities were told to take more effective action to improve the business environment by streamlining bureaucratic procedures and removing barriers to business operation.

The streamlined "China-standard" bullet train, or electric multiple unit (EMU) train, for the China-Laos railway arrived at the newly built China-Laos Railway Vientiane Station on Oct. 16.

The China-Laos Railway is a docking project between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Laos' strategy to convert itself from a landlocked country to a land-linked hub.

The electrified passenger and cargo railway is built with the full application of Chinese management and technical standards. The construction of the project started in December 2016 and is scheduled to be completed and operational in December 2021.
http://www.news.cn/english/asiapacific/ ... 283192.htm

Rail from Kunming to Singapore may eventually have a Cambodian leg.
Only a little left to do.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunming%E ... re_railway

This map is useless. Having black lines (finished) in Cambodia for the extremely slow single track is nonsense.

Laos hopes for economic boost from Chinese-built railway
published : 28 Nov 2021 at 10:45
writer: AFP

A new $6 billion Chinese-built railway line opens in Laos this week, bringing hopes of an economic boost to the reclusive nation, but experts are questioning the benefits of a project that has seen thousands of farmers evicted from their land.

The 414-kilometre route, due to open on Friday, took five years to construct under China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which funds infrastructure projects aimed at increasing Beijing's clout globally.

Struggling strawberry farmer Anouphon Phomhacsar is hoping the new railway will get his business back on track.

His farm usually produces up to two tonnes of the red heart-shaped fruits a year, but the pandemic has hit the 2021 harvest hard.

It currently takes Phomhacsar three to four hours to send his strawberries to Vientiane by road, but he hopes the new railway will cut this delivery time in half.

And he says it will also be easier for tourists to travel to camp under the stars and pick berries.

"In the future, foreign tourists coming to the farm could be in the tens of thousands," he told AFP.

The train route will connect the Chinese city of Kunming to the Laos capital, with grand plans for high-speed rail to ultimately snake down through Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore.

Infrastructure-poor Laos, a reclusive communist-run country of 7.2 million people, previously had only four kilometres of railway tracks.

But now sleek red, blue and white bullet trains will speed along the new line at up to 160 kmh, passing through 75 tunnels and across 167 bridges, stopping at 10 passenger stations.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/22 ... lt-railway

Dec 11th 2021 edition
On the rails
The economics of a new China-Laos train line
Why connectivity matters

IN THE LATE 1860s, French sailors who had set off from Saigon to find the source of the Mekong river encountered the precipitous Khone Falls between Laos and Cambodia, and realised that the waters would be impassable for larger trading vessels. Their dreams of reaching the riches of southern China by river were dashed. Quixotic plans for rail networks followed, first from British and French imperialists, and then from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which in 1995 outlined its ambition to connect Singapore with Kunming, in China’s Yunnan province.

On December 3rd, at long last, a portion of those aspirations was realised. A high-speed rail line connecting Kunming to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, was opened after five years of construction. The route is part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and the completed section comes with a hefty price tag of $5.9bn—equivalent to nearly a third of Laos’s annual GDP before the pandemic.

For China, the rationale for closer links with South-East Asia is clear. Rising factory wages at home make the case for moving low-complexity manufacturing to cheaper nearby locations. In 2019 Vietnam was China’s fourth-largest trading partner for intermediate goods, between America and India, and up from 15th place a decade ago. China’s intermediate-goods trade with Cambodia and Laos has risen nine- and 11-fold, respectively, in the same time.

The strategy has historical precedent. Until the 1970s Japanese firms’ main interest in South-East Asia was buying raw materials. Then they began moving production to the region. The shift took off after the Plaza Accord of 1985, at which Japan agreed to let the yen appreciate, which widened the gap between domestic wages and those in low-cost countries. Firms were able to preserve their competitive advantage by moving, while also fostering technological expertise elsewhere.

What does the new train line mean for Laos? The landlocked country suffers most from South-East Asia’s limited connectivity. The World Bank has been cautiously optimistic about the new route: Vientiane, it reckons, could become a logistical hub into China from Thai ports, but only if the Lao customs system were made more efficient and connecting roads improved. Although Laos has a land border with Yunnan and no coastline, as recently as 2016 almost two-thirds of its exports to China were transported via maritime routes.
Full article: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-e ... train-line

More nations using Laos-China Railway for freight
Asia News Network | Publication date 01 February 2022 | 21:06 ICT

Business operators from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar are now using the Laos-China Railway to import and export goods to and from China and beyond.

Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry vice-president Daovone Phachanthavong told Vientiane Times that more goods are being shipped between China and ASEAN member countries through the railway.

“I think Laos’ economy will improve this year now that the Laos-China Railway is in use. Businesses in Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar are increasingly engaged in trade with China using the railway,” he said.

“I have been hired to transport goods between China and these four ASEAN countries. In addition, many people in ASEAN countries, particularly Thailand, want to travel on the railway and visit Vangvieng and Luang Prabang once the Covid-19 outbreak has subsided.”

“I am sure that when the pandemic wanes and travel restrictions are lifted, many Chinese people will also visit Laos and other ASEAN countries, and will use the railway, which will directly benefit hotels, restaurants and other businesses in the hospitality sector,” Daovone said.

Thailand recently exported its first shipment of 1,000 tonnes of rice to Chongqing in China using the Laos-China Railway.

Adviser to the Thai agriculture minister, Alongkorn Polabutr, was quoted in the Bangkok Post as saying that the Thai government was looking into exporting fruit, orchids, rubber, cassava, palm oil and fishery and livestock products by the new rail route.

Opening for service in December, the Laos-China Railway has opened up the possibility of extending export routes to Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Europe.

“Many companies are considering investing in Laos because goods from ASEAN countries can now be sent to Europe through the Laos-China Railway,” Daovone said.

“Rice and coffee from Laos have been shipped to Europe by rail, which saves a lot of time compared to sea transport.”

Shipment of goods from the ASEAN bloc to Europe by rail will take just over 10 days, which is much quicker than transport by sea, which takes about 45 days.

According to freight industry publication The Loadstar, using the Laos-China Railway for Chengdu-Bangkok cargo would be 78 per cent cheaper and two days faster than air, Kuala Lumpur-Chengdu would be 70 per cent cheaper with the same transit time, and Shanghai-Singapore would be 38 per cent cheaper, but four days longer.

The Laos-China Railway has so far transported more than one million passengers and 500,000 tonnes of cargo including 100,000 tonnes of cross-border goods since it became operational in December, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The Thai government has ordered the State Railway of Thailand to design and build a new bridge that will connect Nong Khai province to the railway in Vientiane.
VIENTIANE TIMES/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
/Phnom Penh Post

get ready to see some really rich Lao Generals.

China will always be a more palatable ally for South-East Asia than the wide-eyed devil and great Satan,it is a cultural thing and will never change?