[Tlc] L-2 stories about Sino-Lao relations

[justinm at ucr.edu]

See two stories below.
Best,
justin

2008-0331 - Xinhua - Laos road revives ancient trade route to China

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080331/tap-laos-road-c3bb44c.html

Yahoo! Malaysia - News

Laos road revives ancient trade route to China

Reuters - 1 hour 42 minutes ago

Laos, one of Asia's poorest nations where a quarter of its 6 million people lives on less than a dollar a day, contributed the remaining $7 million. (Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Michael Battye and Alex Richardson) - VIENTIANE, March 31 - Asian leaders opened a new highway in landlocked Communist Laos on Monday, the final link in a 6,500 km overland route expected to boost trade and tourism from Singapore to Beijing.
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The paving of Route 3, a 228 km road in northern Laos that was impassable during the rainy season, will cut the travel time from Bangkok to Kunming in southern China, a distance of 1,700 km to little more than one day from several.

"Revitalizing this ancient trade route and stimulating new business between these Mekong neighbours will bring more jobs and greater prosperity to the region," Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank, said at a ceremony in Vientiane.

The prime ministers of Laos, China and Thailand officially opened Route 3, which mirrors ancient "back door" trade routes that linked Southeast Asia to the famed Silk Road, a network of trails that connected China with India, Western Asia and Europe.

As late as the 19th century, caravan traders carried raw cotton and other commodities north in exchange for silk, tea, furs and others goods.

They were used later by drug smugglers in the notorious Golden Triangle straddling Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, a lawless region that was once the world's biggest supplier of heroin. Today, these routes are more likely to see trucks carrying rubber, grain and timber to feed a resource-hungry China, which sends down cheap consumer goods.

Aside from trade, the new road is expected to boost tourism between the three countries and give remote communities in northern Laos better access to health clinics and schools.

"There will be all sorts of benefits. Trade flows will increase between China and Thailand and also to the benefit of Laos," John Cooney, ADB's director of Infrastructure for Southeast Asia, told Reuters Television.

However, some Lao fear their country could be swamped by China, which has invested heavily in mining, agriculture and energy projects in recent years.

The ADB, China and Thailand paid $30 million toward the $97 million cost to upgrade Route 3, which was closed four months each year during the rainy season.

Laos, one of Asia's poorest nations where a quarter of its 6 million people lives on less than a dollar a day, contributed the remaining $7 million. (Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Michael Battye and Alex Richardson)

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2008-0328 - Xinhua - Report: Laos, China expand co-op

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/28/content_7875714.htm

Report: Laos, China expand co-op
www.chinaview.cn 2008-03-28 15:35:40

VIENTIANE (Laos), March 28 (Xinhua) -- Laos and China, whose peoples have co-existed in peace and harmony since ancient times, have seen increasingly closer cooperation in various fields, especially trade, investment, transport and border, according to Lao newspaper Vientiane Times on Friday.

The two countries have witnessed the sound development of their economic and trade relations over the past 10 years. They have cooperated in trade, investment, tourism and transport, with the establishment of a committee on bilateral economic trade and technological cooperation.

Laos-China trade stood at 2.1 trillion kip (241 million U.S. dollars) in 2006, up 70 percent from 2005. Of the two-way trade, exports from Laos to China were over 477 billion kip (more than 54 million dollars), up nearly 95 percent. Their trade was just 247 million kip (28 million dollars) in 1998.

The governments of Laos and China are striving to increase trade to 9.6 billion kip (roughly 1 billion dollars) in the next few years. Lao exports include timber and wood products, agricultural items, and minerals, and Chinese exports are mainly industrial and specialist equipment, and raw and construction materials.

Laos' exports are set to increase due to the proliferation of rubber plantations in its northern provinces. The country currently has 35,100 hectares of rubber trees nationwide. Another new export from Laos to China is lacquer, with an initial plan for sales of 500-1,000 tons in 2009.

Since 1990 when Chinese companies started building factories in Laos, Lao-China investment cooperation had, by the end of 2007, involved in hydroelectricity, industry, mining, transport and service. With a total of 284 projects totaling over one billion dollars, China has become a major investor in Laos.

In 1992, Laos, Cambodia, China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam entered a program of regional economic cooperation (Greater Mekong Sub-region or GMS), under which the development of the 228-km Highway R3 from Bokeo province to Luang Namtha province makes up a vital stretch of the North-South Economic Corridor. This is part of an international north-south superhighway linking China with Thailand, and a core infrastructure element of GMS policy.

The direct link between China and Thailand via Laos will significantly reduce transport costs in the area, and increase the efficiency of vehicles, goods and passenger transit. It will also link the two remote provinces of Laos with the outside world, and help reduce poverty by providing access to markets, income, and employment opportunities, and enhancing development potentials.

Laos and China have witnessed growing friendly contact and cooperation in such other spheres as border, politics, diplomacy, culture, media, health education and training.

Having found a successful solution to any possible boundary disputes in a relatively short time through friendly consultation, the governments of the two countries have set an example for other states to resolve boundary issues through peaceful talks. The Lao-Sino border has become a peaceful, friendly and stable area, the newspaper said.
Editor: Lin Li
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