Lao Farm Worker Beaten, Tied Up, in Dispute at Chinese Banana Plantation
A young Lao worker was beaten, shocked and tied up by his employers at a Chinese banana plantation in northwestern Laos in a dispute over working hours, his relatives said. Lou Xiong’s relatives say he was beaten and shocked by Lao and Chinese employers at a ...
RFA's Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Paul Eckert.
Cardamom brings great changes for Phongsaly farmers
Many local farmers in Laos’s Phongsaly province are shifting to plant cardamom, after earning lucrative income from growing this crop and selling it to Chinese traders. Some families earned as much as 40 million kip per year from growing cardamom, which enabled them to send their ...
Lotteria to open in Laos
Fast-food restaurant Lotteria signed a franchising pact with Lao company, Soxay Chaleun Group, to make inroads in ASEAN countries. Keep reading ...
In Laos' economic zone, a casino and illicit trade beckon in 'lawless playground'
Kings Romans Casino is the centerpiece of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, a 39-square-mile private concession in northwestern Laos, an impoverished communist country of 6.7 million between Thailand and Vietnam. As the name suggests, it is within the Golden Triangle, the area where Thailand, ...
Laos: New farming methods suited to climate change
Poverty and scarce food supply was just a fact of life for the people in Koutou village, Luang Namtha province, Laos. With most people relying on rice farming and livestock for their livelihood, there were few options for other income. Koutou is one of 13 villages ...
Lao economy forecast up 6.4 pct for this year, 7 pct for 2016: World Bank
Investments in power generation and higher than expected production of gold and copper are set to see Laos post economic growth of 6.4 percent for the year 2015 despite the impact of weak commodity prices and sluggish global trade, according to a World Bank report ...
Lao workers returning home to work in SEZs
Speaking to Vientiane Times on 13 July, Chairman of the Champassak Provincial SEZ Authority Mr Khamphon Nuansengsy said that his authority conducted a survey recently and found that many more Lao people wanted to return to work in their hometown as long as jobs were available. In the ...
Over 30,000 tourists visit Laos' Xekong province
Over 30,000 tourists visited Xekong Province in the 2014-2015 period. This number has been rising gradually year on year, according to the Deputy Director of the Xekong Information, Culture and Tourism Department, Mr Souban Detsomphong. Keep reading ...
Tunnel Construction Chemical Leak Causes Mass Fish Deaths in Kasy District
A chemical leak at a construction site on part of the Lao-China Railway has caused the deaths of fish and contaminated sections of the Nam Lik River in Kasy District, Vientiane Province. Authorities in Kasy District, Vientiane Province, have urged residents to refrain from eating fish ...
Latsamy Phonevilay
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 ...
The Vietnam War's 'time bomb' legacy for Laos
The confrontation is immediate — a hundred cluster bombs suspended from the ceiling on fishing wire. This is the display that greets visitors to the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) centre in Vientiane. Between 1964 and 1973, more than 580,000 US bombing missions made the once-tranquil ...
Ministry draws up plan to inspect dams every five years
Laos is preparing a nationwide hydropower inspection procedure which will be carried out every five years to ensure safety and the maintenance of standards. Director General of the Department of Energy Management, Ministry of Energy and Mines, Mr Bouathep Malaykham, told Vientiane Times on Tuesday that in ...
Khonesavanh Latsaphao
EPF extends support to environmental protection
The Environmental Protection Fund has decided to forecast a budget of over 2.5 billion kip to support its environmental protection activities in four target provinces of LuangNamtha, Phongsaly, Oudomxay and Bokeo, all of which have ample natural resources and valuable preserved wildlife habitats in the north ...
CLMV nations to partner in tourism, banking
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen their cooperation in promoting their countries as a single tourism destination. The countries’ leaders agreed on their tourism partnership during the “Four Countries, One Destination” conference held in Yangon, Myanmar, on July 31 under the ...
Lao, Kuwait visa exemptions come into force
Visa exemptions for diplomats and officials / special passport holders of Laos and Kuwaiti came into force on 28 October after the two sides signed an agreement in Vientiane in June. However the passport holders of Lao and Kuwaiti nationality are allowed to stay in one ...
Port Hope charity brings clean water to 10,000 people in Laos
After six years working in the southeast Asian country of Laos, a local charity has provided 10,000 people with access to clean water. Adopt a Village in Laos, a charity based in Port Hope and founded by resident Steve Rutledge, works to bring water filtration systems ...
Ministry lowers quota for students of health science
The University of Health Sciences, health science colleges and public health schools around the country will be accepting 1,178 students into their programmes this year in line with the quota approved by the Ministry of Health. This year the quota set has decreased compared to the ...
Laos, Hungary continue education cooperation
Laos and Hungary will pursue an educational cooperation programme for the next three years after reaching an agreement recently. The related agreement on the educational cooperation programme was signed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs MrSaleumxay Kommasith and Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade MrPéter ...
Foreign arrivals in Laos expected to increase in 2015
Total foreign arrivals recorded in Laos are expected to reach 4.33 million for the year, compared to a total of 4.15 million the previous year, according to new statistics released on 23 December. Keep reading ...
Laos orders product labelling in Lao language
Every product manufactured domestically and also imported products shall now be required to be labelled in Lao language prior to distribution in order to protect consumers. The Ministry of Industry and Commerce has issued an ordinance on product labelling in Lao language, in order to expand ...
