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Headlines:
Six Deaths, $185 Fine, One Diplomatic Headache
Beijing's Flying Hospital Lands in Vientiane
Sixty-Five Years In, Beijing Draws Up the Fine Print
Kaspersky Gets the Keys to ASEAN's AI Hub
Six Million Visitors and a Railway to Fill the Rooms
Three Thousand Farms, One Climate Bet
Railway, Grid, and Expressway Head East
Japan Points Satellites at Laos's Rice Paddies
Natural Disasters Meet Unnatural Speed
Eighty Million Reasons Development Stays Slow
Vientiane Beats Bangkok on the Clean Government Chart
Six Deaths, $185 Fine, One Diplomatic Headache
Australia appointed a special envoy to Laos this week after 10 hostel staff got fines of $185 each for destroying evidence in the November 2024 methanol poisoning case that killed six foreign tourists, including two 19-year-old Australians, Holly Morton-Bowles and Bianca Jones. The tourists died after drinking free shots at Nana Backpackers Hostel in Vang Vieng. No one faces charges for the deaths themselves. Diplomat Pablo Kang will head to Vientiane to "explore all avenues to progress the case," according to Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who told parliament the government expects "full accountability" and charges that "reflect the seriousness of the tragedy." The families learned about the January court proceedings from Danish and British victims, not their own government, and told reporters the lack of communication had "made an unbearable grief even worse." The hostel has since reopened under the name Paradise Hostel, though listings vanished from Booking.com after the platform noticed unusual review activity. Opposition leader Sussan Ley wants Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to summon the Laotian ambassador for a "formal explanation."
Read more: News (envoy appointment), Independent Uk (opposition response), BBC, Yahoo News SG
Beijing's Flying Hospital Lands in Vientiane
A Chinese aircraft kitted out as an operating theater touched down at Wattay International Airport on February 6, part of celebrations for 65 years of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Vientiane. The medical team performed about 50 free surgeries, mostly cataract, glaucoma, and rhinitis procedures, with some operations done on board the plane using ophthalmic microscopes and digital diagnostic equipment. Chinese doctors also trained more than 60 local physicians at Mahosot Hospital, whose new building was itself constructed with Chinese government aid, and screened about 200 schoolchildren for vision problems in Vientiane's Chanthabuly district. The team will meet with about 600 patients total before the initiative wraps up.
Read more: Nation Thailand
Sixty-Five Years In, Beijing Draws Up the Fine Print
China and Laos met to talk about their "shared future" in a five-pillar action plan that covers politics, economy, security, humanities, and ecology. The dialogue, connected with the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties, featured China's ambassador to Laos and CICG vice president Yu Yunquan talking up the framework as both a practical roadmap and consensus building exercise. The Chinese side promised to create platforms and content to make sure the plan's being rolled out effectively. The action plan extends Beijing's hand into areas like ecological governance and security cooperation, sectors where Chinese involvement has historically been more ad hoc.
Read more: Yahoo Finance
Kaspersky Gets the Keys to ASEAN's AI Hub
Deputy Prime Minister Saleumxay Kommasith oversaw the signing of two agreements in Dubai that set Laos up as host of an ASEAN Digital and AI Centre, in a partnership with UAE firm Menas Capital LLC. The cybersecurity duties will fall to Kaspersky Middle East. The Ministry of Finance's deal with the Russian-connected security firm will cover digital financial systems and come with training for government staff who officials admit can't keep up with the technology they're using. The AI centre promises to raise the skills bar and help the nation track regional digital trends, though how one of ASEAN's smallest economies landed the bloc-wide AI mandate was unaddressed at the World Government Summit.
Read more: Travel and Tour World (training programs), AsiaNewsNetwork
Six Million Visitors and a Railway to Fill the Rooms
Laos wants 6 million international visitors by 2026, and Chinese tourists are expected to account for about a third of that number. The Lao-China Railway is the linchpin of the strategy: the high-speed link from Kunming has opened up cross-border travel and connected the country to China's massive domestic tourism market. The government still plans to connect the railway with the Thai network, which would make Laos a regional transport hub. Officials celebrated 4.5 million arrivals in 2025, an 11 percent rise from 2024, with Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Korea the top markets. The Tourism Development Roadmap through 2030 counts on being able to sustain at least 6 percent yearly growth on the railway connection, heritage sites like Luang Prabang, and what planners describe as "high-value tourists from China."
Read more: Travel and Tour World, Travel and Tour World, Travel and Tour World
Three Thousand Farms, One Climate Bet
Laos wants to turn its northern highlands into a showcase for climate-resilient coffee and tea, and the Green CUP Project is the vehicle. Three to four thousand smallholder households are being targeted, with up to 25,000 people supposedly benefiting. The sector already has some heft, with more than 80 domestic and foreign companies in coffee production, processing, and export, creating about $100 million in annual export earnings and employing more than 300,000 workers. The government excited about the possibility of premium exports, especially for tea, though "premium export product" is doing a lot of heavy lifting for a crop still primarily produced by rural households.
Read more: The Star, VietnamPlus
Railway, Grid, and Expressway Head East
Vientiane and Hanoi fast-tracked a railway link, 500kV power grid interconnection, expressway, and border road on February 11, tightening delivery timetables for all four projects. The railway will send freight to Vung Ang port on Vietnam's coast, cutting inland transit times and giving Laos a second outlet beyond China's Boten gateway. The 500kV grid tie will let Laos export more hydropower, and the expressway will smooth over the land route to Hanoi. Coordinated infrastructure packages usually mean clearer procurement windows and less idle capital, so expect staged tenders for tunnels, transformers, substations, and signalling systems as feasibility studies are completed. Bilateral momentum has been building since the Vietnamese Party leader's visit last month.
Read more: Meyka
Japan Points Satellites at Laos's Rice Paddies
Japan's agriculture ministry and space agency ran a workshop in Vientiane to teach officials how to use satellite imagery for tracking rice cultivation. The workshop is building on initial assessments from 2023 in Vientiane and Champasak provinces. The system reduces costs and speeds up the time it takes to produce harvest estimates; officials hope to fold it into national agricultural planning. Tokyo's been quietly rolling out the same satellite toolkit across ASEAN by way of its Food Security Information System.
Read more: The Star
Natural Disasters Meet Unnatural Speed
Laos took out a $16 million sovereign disaster insurance policy in May 2025 that covers floods, cyclones, earthquakes, and landslides, with payouts triggered when government-reported impact data hits pre-agreed levels. The mechanism already seems to be working - a $2 million payout showed up six business days after September floods that affected more than 300,000 people. The two-year premium of $3.6 million is courtesy of grants from the Global Shield Financing Facility and the Risk Finance Umbrella Multi-Donor Trust Fund, meaning pre-arranged disaster money without the usual aid-begging scramble.
Read more: Worldbank
Eighty Million Reasons Development Stays Slow
President Thongloun Sisoulith called this week for faster clearance of unexploded ordnance, the legacy of more than 580,000 bombing runs that dropped 270 million cluster munitions between 1964 and 1973 during the “Vietnam” war. About 80 million bomblets are still sprinkled over a quarter of the country's villages, still killing or maiming people every year. Last year saw 15 accidents and 25 deaths. This year has already seen two incidents and seven victims. The ordnance is usually found on farmland, future infrastructure sites, and undeveloped rural areas, a constraint that doesn't show up in investment brochures but comes to the fore quickly during project feasibility studies. Some 22,000 people have been killed or injured since the war ended.
Read more: Bernama
Vientiane Beats Bangkok on the Clean Government Chart
Laos just posted a 34 on the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index, up from its previous showings of 33 in 2024 and 28 in 2023, edging past Thailand and Vietnam for the first time. The lift comes ahead of national elections that will be run on February 22, with officials talking up new anti-corruption enforcement and tighter public procurement rules. The number is still below the international threshold of 50, but climbing.
Read more: Travel and Tour World
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