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Attapeu Gives 10 Officials Life
The Attapeu Provincial People's Court sentenced 15 officials for a corruption scheme that ran from 2021 to 2024, and ten of them are getting life in prison. The ringleader was 37-year-old Sulixay "Mou" Suliyalay, a former deputy section head in the research department. Investigators followed about $7.2 million via defendants who converted dong into kip and baht to (try and) cover their tracks. The court put the province's confirmed loss at millions of dollars. Provincial finance and planning officials took most of the life sentences; lesser terms ran from two and a half to five years.
Read more: Laotian Times
Vientiane Raids Net 63 Scam Suspects
Police hit six rented properties in Sikhottabong and Hatsayfong districts, rounding up 57 Chinese nationals, four Lao, one Cambodian, and one Thai in an alleged telecom fraud setup. Officers also found thousands (thousands!) of phones, dozens of computers, and several unregistered vehicles. Authorities say the Chinese suspects will be handed over to Chinese police after questioning, the Cambodian will be deported, and all 63 are going to be blacklisted from re-entry. The bust comes after a busy July, when 1,044 people were detained, including 589 in a single raid on ST Vegas Company. Six months into 2026, Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone told the National Assembly that cybercrime arrests already number more than 4,400.
Read more: Laotian Times (national arrests), Laotian Times (July raids)
Vietnam Pipeline Talks Follow March Fuel Crisis
Vietnam and Laos set a $4 billion bilateral trade target for 2026 and $10 billion by 2030 at ministerial talks in Hanoi, building on $3.196 billion in 2025 trade. Ministers Malaythong Kommasith and Le Manh Hung committed to government-to-government fuel procurement and will keep looking into a cross-border fuel pipeline. It’s important to push forward now because Vietnam needed to truck in 50 million liters of emergency fuel in March as more than 1,000 of the country's filling stations sat dry. First-half 2026 trade was $1.305 billion. The pipeline is still in the feasibility study stage, there is no construction current timeline or cost estimate available.
Read more: Laotian Times
Thailand Tenders High-Speed Rail to Lao Border
Thailand will open bidding in December for eight civil works contracts covering the 357-kilometer second phase of its high-speed rail line, from Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) to Nong Khai on the Lao border. Construction is expected to start next calendar year and finish in 2031. Phase one, from Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, is a little more than halfway built and due to open in 2030, meaning Thailand's high-speed network is likely to get to the border almost a decade after the China-Laos link began running. That railway's annual cargo has almost doubled since 2022, and more than 400,000 cross-border passengers used it in the first half of this year. Xi Jinping put the heat on Thongloun Sisoulith in June to do what he can to speed the corridor up.
Read more: Asian News Network
Savannakhet Border Goes Cashless
Deputy PM and Finance Minister Santiphab Phomvihane took a tour of the Second Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge cargo terminal and Savannakhet Dry Port and told everyone that every customs duty, tax, and government fee needed to be paid through the Ministry of Finance's Payment Gateway. The traffic is the reason for the attention and clarification. $6.65 billion in goods passed through the dry port in 1H ‘26, and the checkpoint collected 1,597.674 billion kip, more than three-quarters of the annual target. Fuel imports delivered 933.2 billion kip, more than double the six-month plan. Officials also showed off a spiffy new vehicle-tracking system for government monitoring.
Read more: Asian News Network
LDB Takes Accusers to Thai Court
Lao Development Bank and the Bank of the Lao PDR met Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau to talk legal action against three Thai social media accounts that connected the bank to scam-connected money laundering networks. The trouble started with a post accusing LDB of running payment gateways for gambling and scam operations and naming a senior executive at Chaleun Sekong Energy, which owns 70 percent of LDB, as directly involved. CIB has not publicly named the three accounts and says it will press charges only if it finds the posts were shared deliberately. Two days before the CIB meeting, the central bank said it found no evidence of money laundering or terrorist financing at LDB.
Read more: Laotian Times
State Fuel Looks at 2030 Stock Listing
Lao State Fuel Company cut its headcount by almost a fifth last year to 504 staff, as net profit rose about 70 percent to LAK 70.24 billion, (~$3.1 million). Fuel loss was down about 8 percent, and the company added LAK 1.023 billion, (~$45,000), to the national budget. Director Viengthong Vongthavilay is bringing in international consultants to audit assets ahead of converting LSFC into a public company with a Lao Stock Exchange listing. The company is aiming for 1.88 billion liters in cumulative sales through 2030 and has signed an agreement with Electricite du Laos to see if fast chargers might find a home at its 19 fuel depots nationwide.
Read more: Laotian Times
Digital ID App Retires the Family Book
Laos launched its LAeID digital identity app nationwide, letting citizens store ID cards, passports, birth and marriage certificates, driver's licenses, and vehicle registrations in a unified wallet that’s wired into the national population database. The app has seen 5,000 downloads thus far (in a country of 7.5 million). The old paper household registration book, along with the previous white and green national ID cards, will no longer be accepted for administrative procedures. The rollout comes after the nationwide issuance of chip-equipped biometric ID cards with QR codes and a decision to retire the Family Book for citizens already in the digital registry. Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam have been keen backers of the digital push.
Read more: Biometricupdate (app background), Laotian Times (ministry push)
Consumers Get an App, Suppliers a Clock
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce's new SIENG app, built with UK aid money and GIZ support, lets shoppers file complaints with photos, videos, and invoices attached. Suppliers have three days to reply and great seven more to resolve the issue. If they can’t muster that, then consumers are anble escalate to regulators, who will invite the supplier to explain within 10 working days and rule within 30 days of getting that explanation.
Read more: VDB Loi
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.
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