Young Thai entrepreneurs eye business opportunities in new Laos hub

On Saturday, more than 200 Thai businesspeople, mostly young entrepreneurs from Thailand’s Chamber of Commerce, visited the US$727 million project being developed on 382 hectares in the Lao capital.

Open for service since December last year, Laos’ first-ever integrated logistics park and dry port has facilitated the flow of goods between Southeast Asian countries and China.

Extensions of the Laos-China and Laos-Thailand railway enable containers to be transferred for onward shipment at the dry port, which has cemented Laos as a new supply chain for the region and beyond.

Welcoming the guests, Vientiane Logistics Park Co Ltd vice president Tee Chee Seng said China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are regularly shipping goods through the dry port.

In the first five months this year, 13,000 containers passed through the dry port.

The linked railways and the dry port offer opportunities for Thai entrepreneurs, thanks to the improved interconnection, Tee Chee Seng said.

Transport service providers in Thailand are shipping locally grown farm produce to the Chinese market of more than 1.3 billion consumers via Loas railways.

Panya Paputsaro, president of Thailand’s Kaocharoen Train Transport Co Ltd, said the dry port has cut transport times and costs for exports to China considerably.

The railways and the China-Europe rail network have lowered the cost of exporting goods from Thailand to Europe by as much as 40 per cent compared to transport by sea.

So far, the logistics park and dry port provide only transport and logistics services, but the developer plans investment zones where investors will be encouraged to set up businesses.

The plans include an export processing zone that will offer a more competitive business environment and eventually become a manufacturing export hub for Southeast Asian countries and the global consumer market.

Investors in these zones will benefit from incentives including tax breaks, as well as trade privileges that major economies like the United States and Europe have extended to least developed countries like Laos.

Products manufactured here will be eligible to name Laos as the country of origin, enabling them to enjoy these trade privileges, Tee Chee Seng said.

In addition, the free trade zone will house the main business activities, including the Halal hub and agriculture production park, technology park, office zone, SME area, and commercial zone.

The Lao developer also plans to build Shenzhen-like and Hong Kong-like shopping hubs in these zones to provide people in the region with new and exciting shopping experiences.

Tee Chee Seng said his company is preparing everything necessary for efficient business operation, including infrastructure and legal aspects and procedures, meaning that businesses need to invest only capital and know-how.

The whole project is expected to be fully complete within five to seven years, he added.

The Lao developer said the dry port and logistics park will also link businesses to markets in the Pacific region through the Vung Ang seaport in Vietnam’s central Ha Tinh province, as the logistics park and the seaport are part of the packaged Lao Logistics Link (LLL) project.

A planned railway to connect the seaport to Vientiane and a planned logistics park in Khammuan province are also part of the LLL project, which will provide even more cost-effective transport and logistics services.

Vientiane Times

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