News from Southeast Asia directly to your inbox every weekday.
The Mekong Memo is proudly presented by:
Horton International is your premier partner for executive search in Southeast Asia. Whether you're a small startup or a global corporation, our reliable and effective recruiting solutions are tailored to meet your unique needs. With extensive experience and offices across the region, we excel at overcoming recruitment challenges and securing top talent for your organization.
Click here to learn how Horton can make your life easier.
The Memo is published weekdays - Cambodia (every Monday), Myanmar (Tuesday), Laos (Wednesday), Vietnam (Thursday) and Thailand (Friday). The Thailand edition is free in its entirety; the others usually abbreviated for non-paid subscribers.
Please go to https://www.mekongmemo.com/account to select country editions you would like to receive without affecting your overall subscription status.
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.
Read more: VietnamPlus
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.
If you value the Mekong Memo, please consider buying (or gifting!) a paid subscription, sharing it on social media or forwarding this email to someone who might enjoy it. Please also “like” this newsletter by clicking the ❤️ below (or sometimes above, depending on the platform), which helps us get visibility on the Substack network.