The Mekong Memo: Laos

Laos 20260429

August Whitcraft — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 01:38:57 GMT

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Headlines:

Washington Runs the Same Play, One Country Over

Diesel Doubles, Cabinet Convenes

Sixty-Five Years and Counting the Receipts

Laos Keeps the Lights On in Hanoi

Tourist Count Climbs Toward Six Million

Rain Does What Policy Couldn't

Vientiane Talks Insurance with the Hub Builders

Washington Runs the Same Play, One Country Over

The US Commerce Department has announced their preliminary antidumping duty of 22.46% that will be added to countervailing duties imposed in February, bringing total preliminary tariff exposure for Lao solar exporters to roughly 103%. The Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, whose members include First Solar and Hanwha Qcells, filed the petition last July. The complaint alleges that Chinese-owned factories shifted production to Laos and Indonesia to sidestep duties that had previously been put on Chinese goods. The same alliance has run this exact play before against Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam last April, and some of the rates are as high as 3,400%. Laos, India, and Indonesia together sent $4.5 billion in solar imports to the U.S. in 2025, about two-thirds of the total. Lao duties aren't going to be locked in until Commerce finalizes the deal and the International Trade Commission releases its injury determination on October 19. At that point, collected deposits will either become permanent or be refunded.

Read more: NDTV Profit (India, Indonesia rates), PV Magazine USA (total stacked duties), Laotian Times (Laos local impact)

Diesel Doubles, Cabinet Convenes

Inflation rose above 10% in April, up from 6.2% in February, diesel was responsible for most of the damage. A liter that cost roughly $0.93 in February was priced at more than $2 by April, and that’s dragged transport costs 23.7% higher year-on-year as well as pushed housing and utilities up 19.4%. Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone chaired a two-day cabinet meeting starting April 28 to work through inflation, exchange rate management, and a draft 10-year capital market strategy through to 2035. The government is also reviewing a minimum wage increase - proposals there range from LAK 2.7 million to LAK 4.1 million ($125 to $190) monthly, up from the current LAK 2.5 million ($116), pending confirmation from the Prime Minister's Office. April's print is still below the 11 to 15% levels we saw during the same period last year.

Read more: The Star (cabinet agenda), Laotian Times

Sixty-Five Years and Counting the Receipts

Bilateral Chinese trade was $9.817 billion in 2025, up 19.3 percent year-on-year, and China's cumulative investment in Laos is now in excess of $18 billion. Xi Jinping and President Thongloun Sisoulith swapped formal congratulations on April 25, the anniversary date of 65 years of diplomatic relations, and Xi said Laos is "a priority in China's neighborhood diplomacy." The railway, which gets no end of mention in this newsletter, and which has moved more than 80 million cumulative tons of cargo, is getting most of the credit for the rising trade figures. More than 80 percent of Lao agricultural exports, including rubber, durian, and high-quality rice, get to Chinese consumers directly on that line.

Read more: The Star (event timeline), Asian News Network (tourist arrivals), Xinhua (action plan), Laotian Times (language enrollment), CGTN (Xi)

Laos Keeps the Lights On in Hanoi

Laos sent 2.92 billion kWh across the border to Vietnam in Q1 2026, nearly 120 percent more than they did in the same quarter last year. That figure is 3.8 percent of Vietnam's total use. The increase came on the back of a few projects that came online through 2025, including the 600 MW Monsoon Wind farm and the 81-kilometer Tuong Duong to Do Luong 220kV line that opened in November. Vietnam's approved import pipeline is now involving 47 Lao projects totaling 8,260 MW, of which 2,379 MW is already delivering power, up from 1,700 MW in 2024. The 2030 target is 5,000 MW, going up to 11,000 MW by 2050.

Read more: The Star (Oudomxay solar, China line), Laotian Times (Monsoon Wind timeline)

Tourist Count Climbs Toward Six Million

Q1 brought 1.36 million visitors to Laos, up 8% year-on-year, making the government's 2026 target of 5 to 6 million look like it will be less of a stretch than it did in January. Thailand still sends about a third of all arrivals, but the interesting bit is happening on the margins. US arrivals were up 38.8%, Europe as a whole rose 52%, and the UAE posted 215% growth off a low base. Brazil and Greece each came in around 152%. Chinese visitors are expected to reach 2 million this year, continuing to be helped along by the Laos-China Railway and the 65th anniversary of bilateral ties. Interestingly, for the Lao New year period, Luang Prabang specifically saw a big change in demographics this year. The celebrations pulled in just 68,126 visitors this April, down from 126,846 a year earlier, and festival revenue was cut almost in half ($52.2 million from $97.5 million). Chinese arrivals more than doubled to 2,102 while Thai visitors collapsed 75 percent to 1,207, a reversal that would have seemed far-fetched two years ago. Vietnam rose 142 percent to round out the top three. Domestic tourists fell hardest in volume, off 48 percent. The international visitors who did show up stayed an average of five days and spent about $300 per person per day.

Read more: Laotian Times ($13B revenue target), Travel and Tour World (2025 target exceeded), Laotian Times (Luang Prabang New Year)

Rain Does What Policy Couldn't

Three days of light rain after the Lao new year dropped Vientiane's AQI from more than 200 (unhealthy) to between 26 and 37 (good). The dry season had thrown up more than 16,000 fire hotspots nationwide in the first quarter, daily counts went above 2,200 in mid-April. Phou Phanang National Protected Area has lost more than 1,400 hectares to the flames this year as holiday temperatures got as high as 43 degrees Celsius (109.4F).

Read more: Laotian Times

Vientiane Talks Insurance with the Hub Builders

Officials from Lao ministries, insurers DBV, Willis Towers Watson, and QBE came together in Vientiane on April 24 to talk through insurance and risk management for the energy and mining sectors. Vietnam's Ambassador Nguyen Minh Tam also made an appearance. The agenda covered cybersecurity, third-party liability, price volatility, and climate risk, a fairly complete checklist of things that have gone unmanaged as the country has built itself into a would-be regional energy hub. Vietnam, is Laos' second-largest investor, and has been the chief financier of the hydropower projects and cross-border power lines that make the question of who pays when something breaks a more pressing issue than it once was.

Laos 20260422

August Whitcraft — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 04:46:50 GMT

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Headlines:

Laos Plugs Sunshine Into Yunna, Wind to VN

Vientiane Bets the Gold

Gold Glitters, Diesel Drags

Vietnamese Wind Beats the Clock in Savannakhet

Vientiane Envoy Gets the Full Beijing Treatment

Yunnan to Luang Namtha, Hold the Transfers

Ten Percent by 2040, On Paper

Four Boxes for Every Scalpel and Sensor

Laos Plugs Sunshine Into Yunnan, Wind to VN

China's Southern Power Grid switched on its first 500-kV cross-border AC transmission line on Monday. The line is a 177.5-km connection running from northern Laos into Yunnan that triples two-way capacity from 50,000 kW to 1.5 million kW. About 4.81 million kWh of solar power from a large mountain PV project in Oudomxay and Luang Namtha provinces crossed the border the same day, the first time an overseas new-energy project has traded into China's electricity market. The solar facility has an average yearly capacity of 1.65 billion kWh and is expected to send 1.1 billion kWh north throughout this year. The full line is rated for 3 billion kWh of clean electricity yearly, which is about 30 times what the previous connection could support. In a separate story, T&T Group’s 495 MW Savan 1 wind project in Savannakhet province was able to get commercial operations running within an unusually short 16 months. The 300 MW first phase is already running 48 turbines that feed into Vietnam’s grid. The timeline is the story because instead of building the plant and then waiting on transmission approvals, T&T ran construction and the grid link in parallel, shortening a process that usually drags on for years.

Read more: The Star (capacity multiplier figures), China Daily (trading normalization plans), Xinhua (minister quotes), News Laodong (Wind to VN)

Vientiane Bets the Gold

On April 2, the Ministry of Finance and Lao Bullion Bank signed an MOU at Vientiane's Suphattra Hotel to study a national sovereign wealth fund, to be called the Lao Investment Authority, with gold reserves, gold ore, and bullion to be used as the fund’s asset base. The pitch, made by debt management chief Vileth Kinnavong, name-checked Singapore's Temasek and Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional as models, a heady comparison for a country that has one of Southeast Asia's heaviest debt loads. The architects are planning two arms, a Strategic Development Fund to manage state assets for returns, and a Strategic Stabilization Fund to prop up the kip and support government liquidity. Using gold as a guarantee for bond issuance is explicitly on the table as a way to reduce debt servicing pressure. The preparatory phase, which will involve coming up with legal frameworks, institutional structures, and regulatory systems, is expected to take eight to twelve months. Lao Bullion Bank CEO Chanthone Sitthixay says the fund will allow for turning national assets into productive capital.

Read more: The Star

Gold Glitters, Diesel Drags

Q1 exports totaled $2.77 billion, with gold by itself bringing in more than $480 million, almost all of it absorbed by Chinese buyers. Potash added $299 million, cassava shipments to Thailand cleared $162 million, and the quarter closed out with a $310 million trade surplus. March, however, was on the uncomfortable side. Diesel imports ran $183 million for the month, double January and February’s numbers combined, and the trade balance briefly slipped into deficit. For the full Q1, diesel accounted for $375 million of the $2.46 billion import bill, more than 15 percent of everything Laos bought in from abroad. The surplus is real, just thinner than it was a year ago, when the same period resulting in $414 million in the black.

Read more: Laotian Times

Vientiane Envoy Gets the Full Beijing Treatment

Xi Jinping met Lao special envoy Saleumxay Kommasith in Beijing on Tuesday, accepting a personal letter from President Thongloun Sisoulith and a readout of January's LPRP congress. Wang Yi followed the same day, celebrating wins in railway connectivity, minerals and electricity cooperation, as well as a new five-year action plan for the "community with a shared future." Plenty of this and much more to come during next year's 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties and the Year of China-Laos Friendship.

Read more: Bastillepost (Wang Yi quotes), Bastillepost (Xi meeting details)

Yunnan to Luang Namtha, Hold the Transfers

Laos and China opened a second cross-border bus route on April 11, with vehicles running daily between Jinghong in Yunnan and Xiang Kok in Luang Namtha through a 280-kilometer western corridor that was formerly bereft of direct public transport. One-way tickets about $22, and the journey is a seven-to-eight-hour ride through the Mengman Chahe border crossing. Unlike the existing Mohan-Boten shuttle, a 16-kilometer hop built mainly to feed the Laos-China Railway, this route is a standalone intercity service into territory previously left to traders and locals. Trial runs started in December 2025 after talks in Kunming the previous May.

Read more: The Star

Ten Percent by 2040, On Paper

Laos wants its digital economy to grow from 3% of GDP to 10% by 2040. That’s… ambitious… for a country that’s listed as 131st of 190 economies (ranked by GDP). Vannapha Phommathansy, Deputy Director General of the Digital Government Center, has been promoting a system where "digital networks, data flows, and digital services" are accessible and affordable to everyone. The ten-year Digital Economy Strategy (2021-2030) is the roadmap. The five-year Digital Economy Development Plan wrapped last year with the government publishing a Draft Decree on Digital Transformation, a paper that was built around the three pillars of digital government, economy, and society. Current constraints are poor legal clarity, limited enforcement, and a thin digital skills base.

Four Boxes for Every Scalpel and Sensor

Decision No. 1470/MOH, quietly posted to the Lao Official Gazette earlier this year, sorts medical devices into four risk classes. Three of them need full registration with the Food and Drug Department under the Ministry of Health. Class A devices and locally made export-only products get off the hook a bit more lightly, as they need only a basic notification. Emergency and humanitarian imports have a fast-track lane, as do devices that have already been cleared in countries with well-established regulators.

Laos 20260415

August Whitcraft — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:11:25 GMT

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Headlines:

A Gigawatt of Lao Sunshine

Three Years, $11.7 Billion Rolling

Growth Down, Prices Up

Cheap Watts, Pricey Trucks

New Flight, New Bus Route

Vientiane Backs the General

A Very Regulated New Year

A Gigawatt of Lao Sunshine

China General Nuclear Power Group connected a 1-gigawatt solar installation in Oudomxay Province to the national grid, making it the country's first large-scale mountainous solar project. The facility is expected to generate 1.65 billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year, which is enough to replace about 500,000 tonnes of coal and (again, relative to coal) will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 1.3 million tonnes. The installation feeds directly into the China-Laos 500-kilovolt power interconnection project, a connection that came online in February. The solar farm is coming just in time as fossil fuel markets are getting battered by the situation in Iran, though CGN's local operations head Wang Yang (probably wisely) stuck to the script about providing "stable and clean electricity while supporting regional energy complementarity" rather than crowing about the timing.

Sources: South China Morning Post (details, market context), CGTN (connection)

Three Years, $11.7 Billion Rolling

Three years into cross-border passenger service, the China-Laos Railway is infrastructure that continues to be making a difference. Since the 1,035-kilometer Kunming-to-Vientiane line opened at the end of 2021, cumulative trade on the corridor has totaled almost $12 billion, and first-quarter 2026 trade value is up 62.7 percent y-o-y to almost a full billion greenbacks. Chinese PV exports were responsible for $174 million of that total. On the passenger side, more than 800,000 cross-border trips have been logged since international service started t this time of year in 2023, and first-quarter ridership is up 32 percent (also y-o-y) to 112,000. Four daily trains now run with 420 passengers each, covering the route in nine hours and 36 minutes.

Sources: Xinhua (holiday traffic), China Daily (freight tonnage), Travel and Tour World (tourism growth), Laotian Times (product categories), Bastillepost (bus routes)

Growth Down, Prices Up

The ADB cut its 2026 growth forecast to 4.0%, down from an already-uninspired 4.4% in 2025, and also raised a warning that inflation is expected to be almost 10% from 7.7% on oil, transportation, and electricity cost increases feed through to imported goods prices. The slowdown comes despite about a dozen energy projects under development and a tourism industry that’s nearly back to pre-pandemic levels. Public debt is still at around 82% of GDP, and state-owned power companies stuck with below-cost tariffs and foreign currency exposure are eating into fiscal space. Foreign exchange reserves remain thin and the banking sector continues to be under pressure, so there’s not much room to work with if any new external shocks show up.

Sources: The Star (ADB forecast), Asian Development Bank (sector breakdown)

Cheap Watts, Pricey Trucks

Twenty-seven public and private groups signed an agreement in Vientiane to support electric truck adoption, banking on the country’s plentiful hydropower to offset fuel price pain. The plan calls for charging stations, battery-swap facilities, and loan programs to make the transition easier. Electricite du Laos brought together truck suppliers, transport companies, and three banks to work out the details, but the math is tough to pencil. Electric models currently cost more than double what their diesel brethren do, and they run just 100 to 150 kilometers on every charge, a third of what fuel-powered trucks manage on mountainous routes.

Source: The Star

New Flight, New Bus Route

China Eastern's new Friday night flight from Wuhan to Vientiane, launched April 10, cuts what used to be a full-day journey through Kunming to three hours. The first flight carried about 140 passengers, including a 77-member tour group of mostly middle-aged and elderly Chinese visitors. The next day, authorities in Yunnan opened a daily bus route from Jinghong to Luang Namtha's Xiang Kok village, a 280-kilometer ride that takes seven or eight hours and costs about $22. The bus runs through the Mengman Chahe border crossing, offering the first direct public transport on a western corridor that previously required several transfers. Both route launches have been timed to come alongside the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties/ the China-Laos Friendship Year.

Sources: The Star (flight schedule)

Vientiane Backs the General

President Thongloun Sisoulith sent formal congratulations to Myanmar's Min Aung Hlaing after the general took office on Friday, promising to keep on track with the five-year cooperation framework that the two countries signed in February.

Source: Laotian Times

A Very Regulated New Year

Vientiane put 561 traffic police to work at 145 posts for the Lao new year holiday week. The fuzz was told to enforce 80-decibel limits on music, a fireworks ban (fines up to 5 million kip/ ~$230!), and speed limits. Temperatures are forecast to get up to 43 degrees through April 16. About 5,000 Lao workers each day have been crossing back from Thailand at the Mukdahan border, where officials set up cooling tents and thew open all the immigration counters to handle the crush.

Sources: Laotian Times (deployment), Laotian Times (noise and fines), Laotian Times (temperature forecast), Laotian Times (border logistics)

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Laos 20260408

August Whitcraft — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 03:42:18 GMT

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Headlines:

Seven Fuel Hikes in One Month

Sixteen Thousand Reasons to Stay Inside

Plastic-to-Petrol Pipeline Busted

New Water Plant, Same Dry Taps

Auditors Claw Back a Quarter-Billion

27 Years Later, the Corridor Gets Rails

Friends in Every Direction

Happy New Year, But Keep It Cheap

Larb Gets Its Unesco Moment

Twelve Thousand Tablets to Count a Nation

Hire Local, File Fast

Seven Fuel Hikes in One Month

Inflation came in at 9.7 percent in March, the highest in 11 months and getting close to double February's 6.2 percent, as the global oil crisis tore through an economy without much of a buffer. Fuel prices were adjusted seven times in March as diesel more than doubled and regular petrol increased just over 80 percent. Transportation and communications costs rose ~18%, housing, water, and electricity ~17% (electricity along was up 115% over Q1). One bright spot is that the kip held steady at around 21,400 to the dollar and 680 to the baht, cushioning what could have been an even uglier import price spiral if the levels hadn’t held.

Sixteen Thousand Reasons to Stay Inside

16,395 fire hotspots reported throughout the Q1 period resulted in every single province recording a number above 100 on the Air Quality Index. The northern trio of Bokeo, Oudomxay, and Luang Prabang all blew past 200, which put them at a level that makes breathing risky for everyone, not just the elderly or the asthmatic. April 1 saw 895 new hotspots flare up, Luang Prabang was home to 220 of them. More than a third of the fires burned on agricultural and fallow land, from slash-and-burn farming and livestock grazing without firebreaks. The haze didn’t respect the border and Lao fires helped Chiang Mai, Thailand to get a 235 AQI reading on the same day, making it the world's most polluted city as wind carried smoke across northern Thailand.

Read more: Laotian Times

Plastic-to-Petrol Pipeline Busted

Authorities broke up an unlicensed fuel operation on National Road 13 South on April 4 after inspectors found it grinding plastic waste and distilling used engine oil into gasoline with sulfur levels at more than 130 times the Euro 6 standard. The factory had been selling the fuel to fuel stations in Vientiane, meaning drivers paid full market prices to fill up with a fouled product that would increase engine wear and result in heavy black smoke out of the tailpipe.

Read more: Laotian Times

New Water Plant, Same Dry Taps

Vientiane's new Thatkhao Water Treatment Plant started pumping a new 20,000 cubic meters of water this week, but residents in Khamngoy village haven't seen anything running through the taps for more than a month. The capital now produces about 370,000 cubic meters daily against demand of 400,000, leaving about a tenth of the city still unserved during the March-to-May dry season when the Mekong runs at its lowest. A second plant in Thapha village is nearly finished and will add another 20,000 cubic meters, and the existing Chinaimo facility is being upgraded so that it can pump 120,000 (from 80,000) cubic meters by 2028.

Read more: Laotian Times

Auditors Claw Back a Quarter-Billion

The State Audit Office closed out 2025 with LAK 5,303 billion (roughly $244 million) in recoveries from budget violations, the highest single-year haul seen so far. It seems like the team is sharpening its teeth. State Audit Office President Viengthavisone Thepphachan said the inclusion of audit work in the 2025 Constitution has given auditors more independence, and the PM wants an overhaul of the entire audit system, knowing there’s still plenty of leakage.

Read more: Laotian Times

27 Years Later, the Corridor Gets Rails

Officials from Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand came together in Pakse to breathe new life into the East-West Economic Corridor, a 1,450-kilometer route that has been limping along since 1998. They signed more than 20 agreements on tourism and cross-border trade that will run though to 2030, but the big news came in March when the National Assembly approved a railway to connect Thakhek to Vietnam's Mu Gia border. That line will eventually connect Vientiane to Vung Ang Port to give landlocked Laos its first direct shot at the ocean.

Read more: Laotian Times

Friends in Every Direction

Pentagon and Pyongyang both sent warm words to Vientiane last week, a reminder that small states sometimes have the luxury of diplomatic flexibility that larger countries may lose. The Ministry of National Defense met with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii on March 31 and April 1 for another round of bilateral defense talks (the 17th, so far). Six days earlier, North Korea's Kim Jong-un sent congratulations to President Thongloun Sisoulith on his March 23 re-election, saying he was convinced that ties between the two countries will "continue to deepen and develop." The warm words follow on their October 2025 meeting in Pyongyang.

Read more: The Lao Times (joint vision statement), Korea JoongAng Daily (Kim's congratulatory message)

Happy New Year, But Keep It Cheap

Savannakhet provincial authorities told residents to keep Pi Mai Lao (Lao New Year) celebrations simple this year, and told state departments that they shouldn’t be caught blowing public funds on flashy events this year as pressure on the common man is on the rise. Private parties are being told to shut down by 23:00 and roadside water stations have been completely banned. The government is suggesting that temple visits might be more appropriate than big spending during the holiday, which runs from April 14 to 16. Water splashing is expected to stop at 18:00 except in designated areas, and market monitoring teams say they’re going to be on the lookout for price gouging in transport and tourism.

Read more: Laotian Times

Larb Gets Its Unesco Moment

The Culture and Tourism Ministry wants to put larb and the traditional Baci ceremony on Unesco's cultural heritage lists at the same time that they pitch Nakai Nam Theun National Park for World Heritage Site status. The triple nomination might help Lao get the targeted 4.4 million foreign visitor arrivals and billion dollars in tourism revenue this year. Officials are banking on the success of a Visit Laos-China Year campaign as well as a five-year marketing plan that will running through 2030. Domestic travel is expected to be good for a further $707 million in tourism revenue.

Read more: The Star

Twelve Thousand Tablets to Count a Nation

The first fully digital census is in the books, after more than 12,000 enumerators spread out through the countryside with tablets at the end of last year. They covered 99 percent of 3.6 million buildings, and ran follow-up visits to more than 3,500 spots in early 2026 to mop up stragglers. Data was recorded in real time to a central server at the Lao Statistics Bureau, replacing a paper system that required physically hauling questionnaires from remote villages to processing centers for weeks of manual coding. The results are expected to feed into the country's 2026-2030 national development plan.

Read more: Laotian Times

Hire Local, File Fast

International organizations now have 15 days after signing an employment contract to register local staff with the Foreign Affairs Authority under a new rule that took effect March 23. The new statute replaces 2010 laws and adds criminal prosecution to the list of possible penalties those in non-compliance. Organizations are allowed to either recruit directly or ask the authority to handle hiring for them. Employee ID cards will be valid for a year and will need to be renewed within 30 days before expiration. The criminal liability change is quite an escalation from the way things used to be handled.

Laos 20260401

August Whitcraft — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 02:09:19 GMT

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Headlines:

Running on Empty

Rails to the Sea

Sixty Percent of the Loot Still Out There

Comrades, Brothers, and Congratulations

ADB's Billion-Dollar Birthday Gift

Cash Leash Gets Longer at the Border

Hail Tears Through the Capital

Pakse by Any Other Name

Ancient Megaliths Get the Heritage Stamp

Running on Empty

Line-ups stretched around gas stations across Vientiane in mid-March as diesel prices more than doubled in a month, going from 19,970 kip/ liter on February 26 to 44,340 kip by late March. Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz hit Southeast Asia's most import-dependent economy hardest, and more than 40 percent of the country's 2,538 gas stations were shuttered. Inflation rose to 9.7 percent in March, nearly double the government's 5 percent annual target, largely driven by the spike in fuel-cost inputs. The government has reduced diesel excise taxes to zero and scrambled to source emergency fuel from Vietnam and anywhere else it can find. The Ministry of Public Works introduced temporary 10,000 kip flat fares on electric buses through May 30.

Read more: Laotian Times (inflation), The Lao Times (closures), Asian News Network (bus fares), Lao Dong (price comparison)

Rails to the Sea

A $1.3 billion railway to Vietnam's coast has cleared the National Assembly. The line is expected to run 562 kilometers from Vientiane to Vung Ang deep-water port under a build-operate-transfer model with a 50-year concession, starting with a 147-kilometer piece from Thakhek east to the Mu Gia border crossing before eventually connecting with the Chinese line at Vientiane. The feasibility study shows expectations of daily freight starting at 5,079 tonnes and rising to 47,133 tonnes over the concession period, with a 14-year payback and a 7.1 percent IRR. For context, the Laos-China Railway saw 80 million tonnes of cumulative cargo the same week; daily cross-border freight has gone from two trains at launch in December 2021 to as many as 23 now.

Read more: Laotian Times (cargo), CGTN (freight trains), VietnamPlus (approval), Rail Journal (projections)

Sixty Percent of the Loot Still Out There

State auditors clawed back just under 6 percent of budget violations in 2021, a possibly embarrassingly negligible sum, but rose to nearly 48 percent by 2024, when the tally hit more than $323 million in total over five years. The violations themselves totaled LAK 37,600 billion between 2021 and 2025 in 611 audits, roughly $1.8 billion in a country where total government revenue runs about $3 billion each year. The prime minister wants a systemic overhaul. The State Audit Organization is now expecting 620 audits over the next five years and closing 80 percent of them yearly, by taking advantage of digital tools and better enforcement to close the gap.

Read more: Laotian Times

Comrades, Brothers, and Congratulations

Thongloun Sisoulith sailed through his re-election with 171 of 173 National Assembly votes on March 23, promptly collecting congratulations from both Xi Jinping and the whole senior leadership of Vietnam. Xi said the relationship was one of "comrades plus brothers,” and Vietnam's party chief To Lam and four other top officials sent separate messages praising Thongloun's contributions. Both countries are at the start of synchronized five-year development plans, and Beijing and Hanoi are each trying to set themselves up as Vientiane's closest partner.

Read more: Socialist China (Xi's message), Laotian Times

ADB's Billion-Dollar Birthday Gift

ADB is putting nearly $1 billion in new financing on the table over three years on the occasion of six decades worth of partnership. The money comes as part of a package that will help support Lao’s graduation from Least Developed Country status. ADB President Masato Kanda visited Vientiane and praised the government's fiscal and monetary tightening since late 2024, improvements which have helped wrangle inflation and exchange rates to more reasonable levels. Agricultural exports were a record $1.6 billion in 2025, helped by ADB-backed projects that converted more than 20,000 farmers into producing higher-value crops. The bank also committed to supporting preparations for the 2027 Greater Mekong Subregion Leaders' Summit. The pledge is generous, but state auditors just tallied $1.8 billion in budget violations (see “Loot” story, above), and LDC graduation timelines have slipped in the past.

Read more: Funds for NGOs (overview), Asian Development Bank (meeting)

Cash Leash Gets Longer at the Border

Walking across the Friendship Bridge with $10,000 in your bag is now legal, no paperwork required. The Bank of the Lao PDR doubled the threshold for carrying cash in or out, up from the old LAK 150 million cap set in 2023, and it became effective March 10. Anyone hauling more than $10,000 out of the country will still need a sign-off from the Foreign Exchange Management Department.

Hail Tears Through the Capital

A March 22 hailstorm tore through Vientiane's Sikhottabong and Naxaythong districts with little warning, thrashing 5,490 homes in 17 villages and injuring nine people. President Thongloun Sisoulith and Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone toured the wreckage in the aftermath, handing out cash to some of those affected, and the state electricity utility waived or discounted three months of bills for almost 6,000 households. EDL crews had power back online within three days, but more hailstorms could be imminent as temperatures push toward 40°C.

Read more: The Star (presidential visit), Laotian Times (bill relief), Laotian Times (damage count), Laotian Times (forecast)

Pakse by Any Other Name

Champasak province authorities are formally proposing to rename Pakse city after Khamtai Siphandone, the late former president who died in April 2025 at age 101. Savannakhet's main district was similarly rechristened Kaysone Phomvihane City in 2005. Locals still call it Savan.

Read more: Khaosod English (biographical dates), Laotian Times (precedent)

Ancient Megaliths Get the Heritage Stamp

Houaphanh Province's Hintang Archaeological Park, a sprawl of more than 1,500 stone pillars and more than 150 massive discs scattered across hills and forest, just got national heritage status. The stones are estimated to be 2,500 to 3,000 years old, and nobody knows who built them or why. Underground chambers beneath some of the formations suggest maybe burial rites, but archaeologists have found almost no human remains. The government is mulling a UNESCO bid as part of a 2026-2030 national strategy; Laos is currently home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Read more: Laotian Times (UNESCO bid), Travel and Tour World (research)

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August Whitcraft — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 02:35:20 GMT

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Headlines:

Siphandone Siblings Lock Down the Top Jobs

Self-Reliant on Paper

Labor Wants 64%, Bosses Offer 12%

Tracks to Tidewater

Three-Day School Week Lasts One Day

Last Call for Railway Cash

Hanoi Shows Vientiane the Cameras

Crown on the Mekong

Beijing's Birthday Card

Going Nuclear, Gently

Siphandone Siblings Lock Down the Top Jobs

The 10th National Assembly on Monday confirmed the country's top leadership for another five years, with one addition that might be worthy of note. Viengthong Siphandone, former president of the People's Supreme Court, was elected Vice President, and she will serve her alongside her brother, Sonexay, who got 170 out of 173 votes to remain Prime Minister. That places the Siphandone family in prime positions in both branches of leadership at a time when murmurs about succession are becoming more frequent. President Thongloun Sisoulith, who was reelected with 171 votes, is 80 years old and continues to serve as both head of state and General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, a role he was also reappointed to in January at the party's 12th National Congress.

Read more: The Star (preview agenda), Laotian Times (voter turnout), VietnamPlus (deputy PM count)

Self-Reliant on Paper

Vientiane has approved a new five-year plan that foresees 6% annual growth via the promotion of a "self-reliant economy" as its main strategy. The gap between goals (hopes? dreams?) and reality is still a big one, though. Public debt peaked at 115.7% of GDP in 2022 and is now estimated to weigh in at about 94%. Since 2020, deferred debt payments to China have climbed to $3.23, which is about a fifth of 2025 GDP. The government wants to reduce debt below 70% of GDP by 2030, by leaning on agriculture, and tourism (expected to bring 22 million visitors), and rising electricity exports. Revenue is forecast at 20.95% of GDP with a small surplus planned. If it is to work, borrowing is going to need to be significantly cut while $30 to $35 billion is raised for new investments. It won’t be easy.

Read more: East Asia Forum (deferred debt figures), The Star (revenue targets breakdown), VietnamPlus (social development metrics)

Labor Wants 64%, Bosses Offer 12%

The National Labor Committee met to talk about raising the minimum wage, but the two sides remain far apart. Labor reps want LAK 4.1 million, a nearly two-thirds increase, but employers have countered with LAK 2.8 million, a figure that’s about 12% more than it currently stands. The government is suggesting a middle option, which would be a base wage of LAK 2.7 million plus allowances, putting the total to LAK 3.6 million. Inflation ran 6.2% in February, energy costs are up nearly a quarter year-on-year, and the price of regular gasoline has almost doubled from LAK 21,990 in mid-February to LAK 40,500 this month.

Read more: Laotian Times

Tracks to Tidewater

The National Assembly is reviewing a $1.3 billion rail line from Thakhek to the Vietnamese border, the first phase of a $6.6 billion plan that would give Laos its first direct access to a seaport. The full 562-kilometer railway is expected to run from Vientiane to Vung Ang Port on the coast of Vietnam using standard gauge track compatible with the existing Chinese railway to the north. Deputy Prime Minister Saleumxay Kommasith is saying that it’s a top infrastructure priority for the next planning cycle. The first phase,147-kilometer stretch to the Moua crossing, will be built as a public-private partnership between Petroleum Trading Lao and Vietnam's Deo Ca Group. Construction is expected to begin this year, full operations expected for 2030. The assembly should make a decision on it by this Friday.

Read more: Laotian Times

Three-Day School Week Lasts One Day

The government briefly cut the school week to three days last week to reduce pressure on families during the fuel shortage, but reversed the decision after 24 hours after realizing they may have gone too far. The Prime Minister's Office had at first ordered all schools to reduce in-person classes immediately, with plans to extend the academic calendar to make up for lost time as families struggled with transportation costs. By the next day, most of the policy was rolled back. Pre-primary, general and vocational schools went back to a five-day week; universities will keep the shorter schedule starting in April. The Education Ministry is now trying to get students to bike or take public buses to school instead.

Read more: The Star (remote learning contingency), Laotian Times (original proposal), Laotian Times (reversal), Travel and Tour World (flat-fare dates)

Last Call for Railway Cash

Residents displaced by the Laos-China Railway have until June 18 to claim compensation for seized land or risk losing it permanently to the state. The notice applies to 43 villages four Vientiane districts as a cleanup effort nearly four years after the $6 billion Belt and Road project opened. At least 371 families are still holding out - they say the compensation is too low. 6,504 others have already accepted the government's $83 million payout, an average of about $12,760 for each family.

Read more: Laotian Times

Hanoi Shows Vientiane the Cameras

More than 2,000 AI-powered cameras are keeping a close watch on the streets of Hanoi, and Lao Public Security Minister Vanthong Kongmany got a firsthand look at the system during a visit to the command center last week. The visit comes after two previous trips to Vientiane by Vietnamese Party chief To Lam since December. Hanoi and Vientiane signed a five-year police cooperation agreement earlier this year, and Hanoi's police chief is now pushing for an expansion of the agreement. The Lao delegation specifically asked for support for camera systems, a technology Hanoi is already using in about 3,300 locations citywide.

Crown on the Mekong

The first Thai royal state visit to Vientiane in years finished on March 18, with King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida spending three days as guests of President Thongloun Sisoulith. Talks at the Presidential Palace were centered on education, agriculture, and public health. Thailand and Laos are this year celebrating their 76th year of diplomatic relations.

Beijing's Birthday Card

Xi Jinping sent congratulations to Thongloun Sisoulith on his reelection and took the opportunity to once again promise closer ties between China and Laos. Premier Li Qiang likewise sent felicitations to Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone on his reelection. The alignment of China's 15th and Laos's 10th planning cycles gives Beijing an opportunity to coordinate aid, investment, and infrastructure projects through 2030.

Read more: CGTN (friendship Events planned), China Daily (party-to-party promise)

Going Nuclear, Gently

Vientiane and the International Atomic Energy Agency have come to an eight-year Country Program Framework agreement that will run through 2033. The agreement is on how to use nuclear technology in agriculture, healthcare, water management, as well as learning about/ developing competence in radiation safety. This is the third program of this kind, previous editions ran from 2014 to 2018 and 2020 to 2025. The IAEA will provide technical support as Laos works toward its 2030 development goals. Planned uses include cancer diagnostics, crop irradiation, and water quality monitoring.

Laos 20260318

August Whitcraft — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 07:06:53 GMT

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Headlines:

One Pipe, No Plan

Never Waste a Crisis

Seventy-Six Years of Handshakes

Degraded Land, New Deals

Guinea Pig With Wings

Two Flags, No Blueprints

One in Eight Affected by Disaster

Half the Poverty, Same Hunger

Swiss Francs Send Folk Songs to the Philharmonic

One Pipe, No Plan

More than 1,000 of the country's 2,538 filling stations shuttered after Thailand briefly suspended fuel exports to preserve its own stocks on Middle East supply disruptions. The suspension caused panic buying that drained Vientiane stations within hours, and even after Bangkok gave an exemption and shipped 12 million liters of emergency supply, fuel disappeared again almost as soon as it had arrived. Lines now sometimes stretch two hours deep at the handful of stations still open, and diesel is up by nearly half to 31,560 kip per liter. Laos imports more than 97 percent of its petroleum from Thailand, and when the tap briefly closed, moto taxi drivers contemplated stopping work for days and government-set prices shot up faster than almost anywhere else on the planet. Authorities have banned the filling of water bottles (with fuel) to curb hoarding and told ministries to limit in-person meetings. Inspectors are now out to check whether stations are genuinely dry or holding back stock to try and profit from further price increases.

Read more: CNA (Thailand export ban), Laotian Times (provincial station closures), Asianewswork

Never Waste a Crisis

With diesel at LAK 31,560, up from LAK 21,930 before the panic, the government responded by telling civil servants to work from home, cutting electric vehicle fees by 30 percent, and slapping charges on fuel-powered cars by the same margin. The emergency measures, signed March 13, also mandate that transport companies electrify at least 10 percent of their fleets by year-end and bar government agencies from buying new fuel-powered vehicles unless necessary. Authorities in Vientiane got instructions to extend the bus rapid transit network to the railway station and airport. The Prime Minister's office is also telling ministries to replace in-person meetings with remote calls and put staff on rotating shifts to trim daily commutes.

Read more: Eco-Business (2030 EV targets), Laotian Times (civil servant mandates)

Seventy-Six Years of Handshakes

King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida wrapped up a three-day state visit on March 18, meeting President Thongloun Sisoulith at the Presidential Palace to talk about cooperation in education, agriculture, and public health. The visit cements 76 years of diplomatic ties (established December 19, 1950). The usual diplomatic warmth was on display, with Thongloun offering condolences for the passing of Queen Mother Sirikit last year. The delegation toured the Traditional Lao Silk Residence before attending a traditional Baci ceremony and state banquet.

Read more: The Star

Degraded Land, New Deals

Provincial governments can now approve conversion of degraded production-zone forest land of up to 1,000 hectares for industrial processing, energy, logistics, and agro-processing projects. Agricultural land conversions between 50 and 100 hectares still need government-level approval before needing National Assembly sign-off. The policy introduces a permanent versus temporary conversion split: only permanently converted land works for industrial and infrastructure projects, while temporary conversion applies to things like mining or construction staging, limiting the bankability of those sites. Conversion charges, biodiversity offsets, and potential tree-planting requirements will add costs that investors are going to need to price in. For a roughly $16 to $17 billion economy that's historically restricted land conversion, maximum project scale is a function of how long you're willing to wait.

Guinea Pig With Wings

Comac is using Lao Airlines as its Southeast Asian test kitchen, fine-tuning the C909 regional jet for tropical operations before pitching harder across the region. A January technical paper from a chief engineer at Comac's Customer Service Centre laid out lessons from deployments here: extended maintenance intervals, adaptations for heat and humidity, faster spare parts and technical support from the mainland. The C909 already flies for carriers in Indonesia and Vietnam, but the real prize is generating sales of the C919 narrowbody, Comac's direct shot at the Boeing-Airbus duopoly. If the playbook works in Vientiane's small market, Beijing will get a proven pitch for Jakarta, Hanoi and beyond. One catch is that the safety record is still thin, and airlines buying on price will likely want to see more flight hours before they commit.

Two Flags, No Blueprints

Marriott International will rebrand two La Résidence properties as Luxury Collection hotels, its first property in the country and the brand's debut in both Luang Prabang and Siem Reap. The deal with KS Hotels will convert La Résidence Phou Vao, a 41-room hilltop resort overlooking the Mekong and Luang Prabang's UNESCO old town, in October 2026, followed by La Résidence Angkor along the Siem Reap River in October 2027. Both properties will get upgrades to bring them up to global standards while keeping their architecture and cultural character intact. The conversions, rather than ground-up builds, suggest Marriott is backing existing upmarket demand in markets where governments are pushing premium, lower-impact tourism over volume.

One in Eight Affected by Disaster

Laos counted 376 natural disasters between 2021 and 2025, enough to touch more than a million people in a population that currently runs 7.8 million. Northern provinces that rarely saw flooding, Huaphan, Luang Namtha, Xayaboury and Luang Prabang among them, have seen serious damage in back-to-back years. The government is now folding disaster recovery projects into the national public investment plan.

Read more: The Star

Half the Poverty, Same Hunger

Laos has cut its poverty rate in half over two decades, but a third of kids under five are still chronically malnourished and a fifth of upland households can't reliably feed themselves. About 15 percent of the population scrapes by on less than $1.10 a day, well below even the World Bank's extreme poverty line of $2.15. In remote upland areas, climate shocks and patchy market access keep food insecurity above 20 percent, well above what the national decline in poverty would suggest.

Swiss Francs Send Folk Songs to the Philharmonic

The musical group “The Pianist Vientiane” is reinterpreting 10 traditional songs as orchestral compositions with Swiss government funding, coming up with standardized scores and recordings through the National College of Arts. The ensemble will perform the rearranged repertoire in concerts across Vientiane and the provinces, joined by a Swiss violinist who'll lead a master class. The project is one of several Swiss-funded cultural preservation efforts in the country, part of a pattern of foreign soft-power investment in heritage that the government has been willing to accept.

Read more: The Star

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Laos 20260311

August Whitcraft — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 02:13:50 GMT

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Headlines:

Tehran Burns, Vientiane Lines Up for Diesel

Economy Limps Off the Stretcher

The Agreement That Built the Dams

New Bridge with Old Roads and a Newer Bridge

Planning All the Way Down

Doctor AI Will See You Now

Australia Keeps Plowing: AUD 15M for Lao Farms

Tehran Burns, Vientiane Lines Up for Diesel

Diesel prices went up LAK 7,380 per liter (~34 US cents) on March 6, one of the biggest single-day moves in years, after U.S.-Israeli strikes killed Iran's Supreme Leader and Tehran fired back throughout the Middle East. A normal monthly move is typically more like LAK 80-300, so this jump rivals only 2022 energy crisis peaks. Drivers were lining up at Vientiane stations before dawn, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce demanded daily supply reports from importers as it warned against hoarding. The panic isn't irrational - Laos imported $1.26 billion in fuel last year (most of it via Thailand), leaving virtually no cushion when Thai refineries suffer their own price shocks as crude prices climb. Most of the crude comes by way of the Strait of Hormuz, the famous chokepoint that carries a fifth of global oil shipments and sits squarely in Iran's crosshairs.

Read more: Laotian Times

Economy Limps Off the Stretcher

The IMF sees an economy that’s moving in the right direction. Inflation that hit 30 percent in 2023 dropped to 7.7 percent in 2025, and public debt was reduced from 112% of GDP in 2022 to about 80% in 2025. Tighter monetary and fiscal policies in the second half of 2024 were able to steady the kip and cool price pressures. Growth is now expected to hold around four and a half percent through this year on electricity exports, tourism, and foreign investment. The IMF is hopeful that debt could fall to just over half of GDP by 2030 if fiscal discipline holds, but warned that current levels are still well above anything that might be considered sustainable. High external debt, thin foreign reserves, and a fragile financial sector mean the economy remains dangerously exposed. Primary budget surpluses of 2.5 to 3 percent of GDP would be more appropriate, so there’s still a long way to go.

Read more: Laotian Times

The Agreement That Built the Dams

The 1995 Mekong Agreement was introduced with high hopes equitable use of the River and forced everyone to promise “no significant harm” to the river system. Three decades later, the Mekong River Commission celebrated its anniversary in November 2025 with talk of shared prosperity, but a closer look may show a different story. Before 1995 the lower Mekong mainstream had zero large dams; China is now running 12 mainstream dams and controls the river flow at will. The basin is currently expecting a further 23 GW of planned hydropower that will need $50 billion in investment, and the consultation process which was meant to prevent harmful construction has largely just become background noise.

New Bridge with Old Roads and a Newer Bridge

The 5th Friendship Bridge with Thailand raked in 47.5 billion kip (about 69M THB/ $2.2 million) in its first full month after opening December 27, most of the money coming from customs duty on fuel, consumer goods, electrical appliances, and construction materials that crossed from Thailand's Bueng Kan province. The government has a 350 billion kip ($16.3 million) full-year revenue target for 2026; January's haul indicates that will be within reach. The bottleneck isn't the bridge itself but National Road No. 8 on the eastern approach toward Vietnam. Its crumbling surface can't handle the 11-tonne-per-axle international standard, forcing some freight operators to transfer cargo between vehicles mid-route or skip the crossing entirely. Transit traffic to third countries has remained flat, even though domestic trade is climbing. Vientiane and Bangkok have also put a price tag on their sixth Friendship Bridge: $165 million to connect Salavanh Province to Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani. The 1.6-kilometer crossing will also require 23.4 kilometers of connector roads. Thailand is expected to pick up a little more than half of the bill. Budget approvals are expected in 2028, construction in 2029, and a bridge opening in 2031, so we are still five years away from any traffic.

Read more: The Star (bridge 5), Laotian Times (bridge 6)

Planning All the Way Down

Three plans, three time horizons, and one cabinet meeting. On February 24 the Lao cabinet blessed a five-year plan through 2030, a ten-year strategy through 2035, and a long-term vision that stretches all the way to 2055. The shortest horizon alone promises 50,000 vocational graduates, 650,000 workers trained, and 411,000 people pushed into jobs at home or abroad. Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone says that the vision-making exercise will help the nation build an "independent and self-reliant economy" in a region that has no shortage of trade disputes.

Read more: The Star (planning), USASEAN BC (strategy)

Doctor AI Will See You Now

An MOU signed with three Chinese companies in February will support the study and build out of a National Health AI Platform under the umbrella of China’s Belt and Road project. The platform will be specifically designed to support disease analysis and the digitization of medical records. The ambition comes with some baggage because Laos is rated 125th out of 195 in the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index 2025. It scored abysmally at only 30 out of 100, with dogged gaps identified in tech access, skills, and research capacity.

Australia Keeps Plowing: AUD 15M for Lao Farms

Thirty-five years and more than 150 projects later, Australia's agricultural research partnership is going for another round. AUD 15 million (~$10.6 million) is being promised through ACIAR, and will be spread over six projects and five years to cover everything from climate-smart cropping and poultry genetics to digital market access for cattle trades. More than 50 researchers have been awarded Master's and PhD degrees through the program so far. The money total is modest through the lens of a farm sector that (according to the article) employs more than three-fifths of the workforce and is still very exposed to the sort of climate shocks that the new projects are intended to address.

Read more: Laotian Times

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