The Trans-Asian Railway is an important part of China's external railway network. At present, the China-Laos Railway has been completed and opened to traffic, the first phase of the China-Thailand Railway has started construction and is expected to be completed and opened to traffic in 2027, and the second phase of the project is expected to start in 2024 and be completed and opened to traffic in 2028, which will provide strong support for the development concept of China-Laos-Thailand Connectivity. The feasibility study for the Mandalay section has been completed and the feasibility study for the Mandalay-Kyaukphyu section has been initiated. In addition, China and Vietnam reached a consensus on the promotion of Lao Cai-Hanoi-Haiphong and the launch of three railways, namely Hanoi-Dong Dang and Haiphong-Mong Cai. Recently, the prime ministers of Vietnam and Laos held talks and reached a consensus on the promotion of the Van Vinh railway and the Hanoi-Vientiane highway, and signed relevant agreements, which will help promote infrastructure connectivity on the Indochina Peninsula and benefit the Trans-Asian Railway.
Lao Prime Minister Somsai Siphandun visited Vietnam on January 6-7 to co-chair the 46th meeting of the intergovernmental committees of the two countries with the Vietnamese prime minister, and held talks after the meeting, according to the Vietnam News Agency. During the talks, the prime ministers of Vietnam and Laos reached a consensus on the direction of future cooperation, defense cooperation, border management, etc., and agreed to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries, especially in the fields of finance, transportation infrastructure, energy, telecommunications, and tourism. After the meeting, witnessed by the prime ministers of the two countries, the two sides signed four cooperation documents, including the "Memorandum of Understanding on the Development and Docking of Border Trade Infrastructure."
It has been learned that positive progress has been made in economic, trade and investment cooperation between Vietnam and Laos. Vietnam is the third largest source of investment in Laos, with 241 investment projects in Laos and a registered capital of US$5.47 billion. In 2023, the bilateral trade volume is expected to exceed US$1.5 billion, of which, in the first 10 months of 2023, Vietnam's exports to Laos were about US$442 million, and imports from Laos were about US$888 million, and Vietnam was in a deficit position.
Transport infrastructure has become a key focus of cooperation between Vietnam and Laos. We are no strangers to the Vientiane-Vinh An railway. The railway starts from Vientiane, the capital of Laos, passes through Tahayek District, Khammouang Province in central Laos, turns east to Vietnam, and ends at Vinh An Port, with a total length of more than 555 kilometers and is built on standard gauge, with a total investment of about 6.5 billion US dollars. Among them, Vientiane is about 312 kilometers from Tahayek County, about 139 kilometers from Tahayek County to the Vietnam-Laos border, and about 119 kilometers from Vietnam. The railway is being jointly promoted by Vietnam's Dashankou Group Joint Stock Company and the Lao Petroleum Trading Company using a public-private partnership model, or in cooperation with South Korea.
In October 2023, the Vietnamese government approved a feasibility study study for the Vung Ang-Mu Gia section in Vietnam, which is about 103 kilometers long and is expected to cost nearly VND27.5 trillion (US$1.12 billion). According to Lao media reports, the section from Tahayek to the border between the two countries in Laos may be completed and opened to traffic in 2028, and the section from Vientiane to Tahayek County has not yet been announced because it is on the same line as the Lao-Cambodia railway. After the railway is completed and opened to traffic, it will become the nearest outlet to the sea in Laos, and it will also be an important transportation route for goods exported to Japan and South Korea from countries on the Indochina Peninsula.
The picture comes from the Internet
It is worth noting that the construction of the Hanoi-Vientiane Expressway is accelerating. This section of the expressway is planned to be routed along the route of Hanoi - Vinh City - Thanh Thanh (Vietnam port) - Bac Shan (Laos) - Vientiane, according to the standard of two-way 6 lanes and a speed of 80-120 kilometers per hour. Among them, Vientiane Zhirong City is about 446 kilometers long, and the planned investment at that time exceeded 5.2 billion yuan (about 381 kilometers in Laos, with a total investment of about 4.48 billion yuan). At present, the section of the Hanoi-Vientiane Expressway in Vietnam is basically completed, while the section in Laos is limited by financial and technical constraints, and the progress is slow.
The strengthening of railway and highway docking between Vietnam and Laos is conducive to the interconnection of the Indochina Peninsula. Transportation infrastructure is the forerunner of economic development and an important support for industrial chain cooperation. As an underdeveloped country, Laos has become the first country in Southeast Asia to start a train, changing from a "land-linked country" to a "land-locked country", and has become an important logistics transit base in the Indochina Peninsula, providing an important platform for China-Laos industrial and production capacity cooperation, and injecting new impetus into the economic and social development of Laos. Driven by the demonstration of the China-Laos Railway, Southeast Asian countries have accelerated the construction of railways, with the first phase of the China-Thailand Railway speeding up construction, and the second phase of the project about to start; Vietnam proposing the construction of the North-South High-Speed Railway and the Lao Cai-Hanoi-Haiphong Railway; Malaysia speeding up the Malaysia-Dong Railway Project and restarting the Xinlong High-speed Railway Project, and so on. This will not only help strengthen the transportation connectivity within the Indochina Peninsula, but also help China and the Indochina Peninsula achieve connectivity, and facilitate China-ASEAN industrial chain cooperation.
First, multi-country participation can help achieve mutual benefit and risk diversification. For example, the China-Laos-Thailand railway connects the central countries of the Indochina Peninsula and also connects Malaysia; the China-Myanmar Railway is a strategic passage for China to reach the Indian Ocean, and a new agreement has been signed at Kyaukphyu Port; the Kunming-Hanoi-railway, the Nanning-Pingxiang/Tongdeng-Hanoi railway, and the Nanning-Dongxing/Mong Cai-Haiphong railway, which are connected between China and Vietnam, are also important railway projects for the interconnection between China and the Indochina Peninsula. These railway projects are mainly the transportation arteries connecting the Indochina Peninsula and China, and belong to the north-south longitudinal railway lines.
On this basis, the horizontal railway/highway links of the Indochina Peninsula, such as the Vientiane-Vinh An railway, the Hanoi-Vientiane Expressway, and the Cambodia-Thailand railway, once completed, will make the transportation links of the Indochina Peninsula more diversified and more convenient, and provide strong support for economic and trade cooperation between countries. At the same time, the participation of multiple countries in the transportation infrastructure of the Indochina Peninsula can form a pattern of mutual convergence and mutual constraints, and reduce the risks brought about by the leadership of a single country. Therefore, the construction of major projects such as the Vientiane-Vinh An railway with the participation of other countries can expand the scope of benefits and form a pattern of win-win cooperation.
Second, Vietnam-Laos cooperation in transport infrastructure will help open up the most convenient land transport corridor between Nanning and Vientiane. At present, between Nanning, China and Hanoi, Vietnam, a standard gauge railway has been built, the Hunan Guizhou Railway (Nanping Section) in China, and the "set of gauge railway" combining meter gauge and standard gauge in Vietnam, and China and Vietnam have also run freight trains, since the RCEP came into effect to the end of 2023, a total of 382 cross-border container trains have been operated, and the types of goods have increased from 102 to more than 620, covering many cities and providing important support for the economic and trade development of China and Vietnam. At present, Guangxi has opened the Fangdong Railway, is speeding up the construction of the Nanping high-speed railway (Chongping section), and also plans to expand the capacity of the Xianggui Railway (Nanping section), invest about 1.5 billion yuan to build the Jingxi to Longbang port railway, etc., forming four direct to the Sino-Vietnamese border, passenger and freight division of labor and cooperation of the railway artery!
However, the extension of the Sino-Vietnamese railway to Laos and Thailand in the hinterland of the Indochina Peninsula can play a greater role. According to the "14th Five-Year Plan for Comprehensive Transport Development in Nanning", preliminary studies will be carried out on the freight railways from Hong Kong and Shenzhen to Vietnam (Indochina Peninsula) via Nanning and Nanning to Yangon via Vientiane. The railway is to open up the land passage from Nanning to Southeast Asia, with a total length of about 1,600 kilometers. The route in Vientiane can also be connected to the Sino-Thai railway project directly to Vientiane, the capital of Thailand, forming a new transportation channel. At present, only the railway between the capital of Vietnam and Vientiane, the capital of Laos, has not been put on the construction schedule, but the Hanoi-Vientiane expressway can make up for this deficiency to a certain extent, after all, the highway is faster and has a larger capacity, and the "blockage" can be broken through road-rail intermodal transport. Of course, the mode of transportation from road to rail is much less competitive than that of the China-Laos Railway.
In addition, the Hanoi-Vientiane Expressway can also form a demonstration effect and drive subsequent railway construction. Once the Nanning-Hanoi-Vientiane-Bangkok (Yangon) railway is completed and opened to traffic, it will form the most convenient railway transportation channel from China's economically developed regions - the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta and the two lakes of Central China to the Indochina Peninsula, and become a basic project for China-ASEAN industrial chain cooperation. At the same time, this railway passes through 5 capitals of 3 countries, and both political and economic influence are incomparable!
#文章首发挑战赛#