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Headlines:
Laos Graduates from the Poor Kids’ Table
Of Red Carpets and Red Flags
Railway Roulette Sets Up Durian Rumble
Betting the Farm on Hydrogen-Roasted Beans
Three Nations, One Satellite, Same Smoke
Polishing the Last Asset
Vientiane Promises a Mining Revamp
EU Bets on Village Chiefs to Save Forests
Laos Graduates from the Poor Kids’ Table
The UN has officially given a recommendation for Laos to move beyond its “Lest Developed Country” label this year, alongside Bangladesh and Nepal. It’s a nice win, but the promotion will do away preferential trade terms and concessional financing just as Vientiane is getting a handle on its crippling debt. The change in status will comes with a transition period, however, and that’ll be helpful in providing some relief. Party Secretary General Thongloun Sisoulith wants at least 6 percent annual growth for 2026-2030, though last year’s 4.3 percent (per the IMF and the National Statistics Centre) isn't wildly inspiring of confidence (the ADB suggested the number was even lower, at an even 4 percent). Graduation puts Laos in the company of Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines as a lower-middle-income developing nation.
Read more: Asia News Network (LDC Graduation), The Star (UN Confirmation)
Of Red Carpets and Red Flags
Vientiane’s newly re-elected party chief made Vietnam his first stop after congress season came to a close in a predictable ritual that’s telling of who Laos sees as indispensable. President Thongloun Sisoulith and Vietnam’s To Lam shook hands on several deals, but specifically talked up the Vientiane-Hanoi expressway and Vientiane-Vung Ang railway; two pieces of infrastructure that will keep them as tightly connected as ever. Both scrambled to mention “strategic cohesion,” a wonderfully vague phrase that covers everything from communist party study sessions to coordinated positions at ASEAN forums, but Vietnam is already one of Laos’s largest investors, so further promises about energy, digital, and defense cooperation aren’t breaking any new ground.
Read more: VOV (State Visit), The Star (Cooperation Agreements), Nhan Dan (Political Trust), Laotian Times (Seven Sectors)
Railway Roulette Sets Up Durian Rumble
Thailand’s grip on durian sales to China is getting a challenge from Laos. They’re starting small with a 400-tonne export target (a tiny 0.03% of China’s appetite) but lower land, labour, and transport costs (thanks to the oft-mentioned railway) could let it undercut Thai and Vietnamese suppliers in the mass market. Malaysian suppliers will also probably be impacted in the long term, but it seems like they’re not too concerned for the moment.
Read more: The Sun
Betting the Farm on Hydrogen-Roasted Beans
Champasak province is home to Asia’s first hydrogen-powered coffee roasting plant. The pilot, running since last year, roasts beans at 200°C using hydrogen that’s been produced from hydropower, giving zero-emissions processing that they say keeps the flavor while checking every sustainability box. A scaled-up plant to roast 5,000 tonnes a year is under construction.
Read more: News Karnataka
Three Nations, One Satellite, Same Smoke
Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar have come together to agree on a joint action plan (“2026-2027”) to use satellites and real-time data sharing to reduce the seasonal haze that chokes everyone in the region every dry season. We’ve heard this song and seen this dance before, but this time everyone is serious and promising fire-risk mapping, air quality reporting, and alternatives to (the biggest culprit) slash-and-burn farming.
Read more: The Star (Trilateral Action Plan), The Star (Satellite Plan)
Polishing the Last Asset
Vientiane’s state-backed Lao Bullion Bank has an MOU with Japan’s Bullion Market Association to develop the gold market and get it connected it to international trading networks. It’s a curious move for a government scrambling to service heavy external debt. The agreement, blessed by Deputy Governor Soulysak Thamnuvong and Japanese Ambassador Koizumi Tsutomu, covers support on market structure, standards, and rules/ regulations. LBB chief Chanthone Sitthixay talked up the deal as something that would improve financial system, and JBMA’s Bruce Ikemizu said Japan was confident in Laos’s “growth potential.”
Read more: The Star
Vientiane Promises a Mining Revamp
Minister Malaythong Kommasith laid out the plan for a five-year overhaul of the Lao Mining Development State Enterprise. A review is underway alongside the deployment of the sorts of promises that go along with the usual buzzwords that surface when a state outfit needs fresh capital.
Read more: The Star
EU Bets on Village Chiefs to Save Forests
Villagers are getting the keys to Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park after decades of top-down enforcement has failed to stop forest cover from shrinking every year (only 0.36% annually, but it adds up). The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment has come to an agreement with the Wildlife Conservation Society and EU Ambassador Mark Gallagher for a three-year pilot that’ll see residents near protected areas given the opportunity to co-manage forests by way of village-level plans. The government wants a 70% forest cover target and is giving locals both responsibility and an economic stake to keeping their chainsaws quiet. We’ll see if the people who live next to the trees will be able to protect them better than far-away bureaucrats.
Read more: The Star (Wildlife Protection), The Star (Community Conservation)
That’s all for this week, thanks for reading.
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