Laos kicks off its Asean chairmanship on 26 February with an agenda-setting foreign ministers’ retreat in Vientiane, its capital on the east bank of the Mekong River. Analysts say this year could be a coming of age for the “lower-middle income economy”, where poverty continues to be ...

Attapeu province in southern Laos has huge untapped tourism potential but still lacks the funding to develop these tourism sites and roads access, officials have confirmed.Without roads access, it would make it difficult for authorities to attract the business sector to develop those attractions and ...

While Vientiane has been improving its drainage network, the water quality in drainage canals and marshes is still declining relative to other cities in Asean, an audience including the city’s Vice Mayor heard in the capital yesterday.Increased discharge of domestic wastewater from urban areas is ...

Laos and Cambodia have agreed to continue to strengthen cooperation and to develop land links to enhance trade and investment between the two nations. The plans arose from a meeting between Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen when Mr Thongloun visited Cambodia ...

Businessmen in Laos’s Attapeu province are selling timber hidden for years in the forest after being harvested illegally, mixing it with other timber allowed by provincial authorities to be sold by local villagers, Lao sources say. Now being sold to private businessmen, the contraband timber was ...

According to the 2014 National Survey on Violence against Women, more than 30% of ever-partnered women in the Lao PDR have experienced physical, sexual, or emotional violence by a male partner in their lifetime. During the COVID-19 lockdowns last year, the LWU Counselling and Protection ...

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has congratulated Laos on its selection for the ASEAN chairmanship in 2016, saying that this year is an important milestone for ASEAN, as the ASEAN Economic Community was coming into effect.At a courtesy call with President Choumaly Sayasone of Laos in ...

Laos, often called the “Battery of ASEAN”, will live up to its name by supplying ASEAN power at a critical time, when energy demand in the region’s fast growing economies threatens shortages amid several infrastructure and urbanisation projects, pledged Laos Vice Minister for Energy Viraphonh Vilavong. Thailand, which ...

The first bridge span of the China-Laos railway has been built over the Mekong River in northern Laos, the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd., which is in charge of the construction and operation of the railway said on Tuesday. Accordingly, the China Railway No. 8 Engineering Group ...

Work on a fifth bridge linking Laos and Thailand across the Mekong River has begun after a construction agreement was signed in December. The bridge, which will take 36 months to build, will connect Bolikhamxay province in Laos to Thailand’s north-eastern province of Bueng Kan. Local daily ...

Authoritarianism in Laos is at the root of illegal land grabs, land grievances, and ongoing human rights violations. The upcoming elections in Laos are unlikely to change this. International business stakeholders, however, can do more to support local communities and uphold fundamental human rights. The Lao ...

Vietnam’s electricity firm EVN has signed five new deals to buy electricity from Laos starting from next year, the state-run company said. The southeast Asian nation faces severe power shortages from 2021, as demand outpaces construction of new plants, with demand expected to exceed supply by ...

Laos has huge potential in developing tourism sites, with a number of incentives introduced to boost investment in the sector. Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Mr Ounethouang Khaophanh said investors were welcome to invest in developing and operating tourism sites in line with ...

The Lao government is pushing ahead with more hydroelectric dams despite uncertainty about Thailand’s willingness to purchase the electricity they generate, Lao officials and others with knowledge of the situation said. Laos has 78 dams in operation and has signed memorandums of understanding for 246 other ...

The cooperation on a railway linking China and Laos has been advancing smoothly and the foundation stone will soon be laid to start its construction, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said here on 21 November. Li called the railway one of the new fruits of bilateral cooperation ...

The World Bank has provided financing of more than 250 billion kip (US$31 million) to Laos, to implement the Lao Southeast Asia Disaster Risk Management project. The project will invest in urban flood risk management in Oudomxay province, and in more reliable hydro-meteorological services across ...

More than a hundred families in central Laos’ Bolikhamxay province who were displaced by the Nam Theun 1 dam have decided to accept compensation, putting an end to a standoff that lasted 17 months, sources in Laos told RFA. Disputes over compensation by displaced villagers have ...

Hongsa Power Co., Ltd. has built 136 houses and other essential infrastructure to accommodate people who had to move from their homes in Kiewngiew village, Ngeun district, Xayaboury province, when the company extended its mining operations. The 136 new houses have electricity and water connections, while ...

The wind speeds in some parts of Attapeu province are sufficient for the development of wind power in the neighbourhood however wind turbines are not yet seen there. Director of the provincial Energy and Mines Department Mr Vithaya Phommachanh told Vientiane Times on 10 February that there ...

Thailand will raise concerns about its current drought during a Mekong River Commission meeting expected next month, the Thai water-resources chief said, as local farmers complained that dams in China were choking the waterway on which millions depend for their livelihoods. Somkiat Prajamwong, director of Thailand’s ...