Thailand, Laos strengthen ties on infrastructure

The deals were reached in bilateral talks between visiting Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong and his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra.

Thongsing visited Thailand last week to attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia 2012.

Thailand has agreed to provide assistance in constructing roads from town centres in Laos to connect to Lao-Thai checkpoints in preparation for upgrading temporary checkpoints to international ones, the Lao News Agency reported on Monday.

Loan agreements, in which Bangkok has provided financial assistance to fund two projects in Laos, were also signed. The first loan of more than 182.3 billion kip (Bt723 million) will fund the construction of a 33-kilometre road from Phudu checkpoint in Thailand’s Uttaradit province to Paklai district in Xayaboury province, Laos.

The second loan of more than 46.7 billion kip (Bt185 million) will be used for the second phase of development of Pakxe Airport in Champassak province. The Thai financial assistance has been given partly as a grant and partly as a soft loan.

Thailand will consider support for a feasibility study of the construction of the fifth Laos-Thailand Friendship Bridge that would link Laos’s central province of Borikhamxay with Thailand’s Bueng Kan province. The Lao-Thai joint commission on bilateral cooperation agreed in March to build the bridge.

Thailand will also consider supporting a feasibility study for the construction of another bridge connecting Vientiane and Thailand’s Nong Khai province, to carry a railway. Regional governments are pushing for the realisation of the regional rail project to connect China’s Kunming to Nong Khai via Laos.

The two premiers also agreed to increase cooperation to combat human trafficking and cope with illicit drug smuggling. They will also deepen cooperation to promote security along the Mekong River and bolster greater trading and investment between the two neighbours.