Vientiane, Laos - The Lao government plans to approach China next month to discuss funding for a national railway and superhighway in the impoverished, state media reports said Wednesday. "We will hold discussions with our Chinese counterparts about project funding in March," said Achong Laomao, deputy director general at the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

 

Laos plans to construct a national railroad and superhighway as part of its next five-year plan which aims to turn "Laos from a land-locked to a land-linked nation," he told the Vientiane Times.

 

It was unclear whether the Lao government would provide some investment itself in the projects or approach the private sector to build and operate them.

 

The development of railways in Laos, a communist country half the size of France, could provide overland cargo and passenger transport between the five countries surrounding it - China, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.

 

At present, Laos has 3.5 kilometres of railway, running from the Vientiane-Nongkhai Friendship Bridge on the border with Thailand to Thanaleang station in Vientiane.

 

Both the Chinese and Vietnamese governments have previously provided Laos with funding for surveys of possible railway links, and a Malaysian company is currently conducting an economic feasibility study for a railway in the southern province of Savannakhet, the Vientiane Times reported.

 

The company is to also conduct a survey of the feasibility of a linkup with Vietnam's railway network