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.
PM Orders Fuel Reserve
Laos needs to keep at least 60 million liters of fuel in reserve, Prime Minister Saleumxay Kommasith told the National Assembly. Thailand supplies nearly all the country's imported fuel, which is a reliance that became painful when the Middle East crisis caused prices to double within weeks and forced more than a thousand gas stations to shut. The government wants fuel companies to buy from Vietnam, China and Singapore in addition to giving the Lao State Fuel Enterprise more authority to steady prices and smooth supply.
Read more: Laotian Times
Analysts Split Over China's Airfield
China and Laos have opened a joint support and training center at Ban Keun, a former CIA airfield about 50 kilometers north of Vientiane. Lao officers are calling it a pilot school, but satellite images are supporting a livelier argument. Pictures from above show eight K-8 basic jet trainers and a 2,000-meter runway that China has been building since late 2025. Eight is about twice as many trainers as analysts think the Lao air force owns and some think that an expanded field could become a forward base for Chinese aircraft. Beijing insists the center is "not directed against any third party."
Read more: The Economist (base debate), SCMP (satellite images), The Diplomat (skeptical view), Defense News (regional influence), UA News (forward base)
Nearly $2 Million Misused in Bus Project
State inspectors found nearly $2 million of diverted funds and idle purchases in Vientiane's Bus Rapid Transit project. The $99.7 million project used $1.52 million upgrading nine roads outside its approved scope and paid $456,000 to buy 150 electric three-wheelers. All of those are now sitting unused because nobody bothered to build parking for them. Contractors also built and demolished stations whose designs were never approved, though inspectors didn't report on what the cost of those blunders might have been. The audit also says a third-party company got $41.47 million from a lender for Electricite du Laos but then failed to pass it on.
Read more: Laotian Times
Vietnam's New PM Signs 11 Deals in Vientiane
Laos and Vietnam have agreed to 11 deals during Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung's first official bilateral trip abroad. The package includes a border road, a Laos-Vietnam Friendship University, an oil supply infrastructure plan and a cybersecurity agreement. The breadth and scope of the agreements seem to be showing that both governments are keen to refresh a relationship that’s getting close to the 50th anniversary of their 1977 friendship treaty.
Read more: Asian News Network (transport talks)
Thai Developer Plans 200 Square KM of Parks
Thai developer Amata Corporation says its long-term industrial park plans could be as large as 200 square kilometers, which is more than six times the size of its first park, Amata City Namor. Amata Founder Vikrom Kromadit says Laos is now the company's "largest focus," betting that Chinese manufacturers want room abroad as political pressure from the US continues. Cheap hydropower is another draw, though, awkwardly, local consumers endure frequent blackouts even as the country exports about four-fifths of its electricity.
Read more: Fortune
More Than Nine in Ten Job Hunters Look Abroad
More than nine in ten registered job seekers want to work outside of Laos. Thailand has been the recipient of nearly all of the more than 708,000 Lao workers who have gone overseas since 2016. In an attempt to lure people back, or keep them in-country, officials are considering raising the monthly minimum wage from LAK 2.5 million ($116) to as much as LAK 4.1 million ($190), but the Prime Minister's Office hasn’t said that it’s willing to approve the increase.
Read more: Laotian Times
Tourism Ministry Licenses to Provinces, Districts
Laos is giving most of its tourism licensing power to provincial departments. District and city offices will take responsibility for guesthouses, homestays and other businesses that have registered capital of LAK 1 billion (~$44,500) or less. The Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism is keeping control of foreign-owned businesses and international tour operators. Authorities are also going to increasing the rate of inspections at tourism businesses and border crossings.
Read more: Laotian Times
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.