On the outskirts of the Lao capital, a blue passenger train rolls from the station through an arid landscape.
Sirens blare as boom gates block a close-by road, and a handful of riders are almost stunned by the misfortune of getting to attend.
It is the one energetic railway in all the country.
The link with Thailand extends for just 3.5km from Laos itself, before crossing the Mekong River on the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge and towards Nong Khai.
However, if China’s ambitious plans are realized, inside five years Laos can have a whole lot of kilometers of high-speed rail lines connecting the capital with China’s southern border and the strategic city of Kunming.
Construction of the 414 km long project symbolically began in December last 12 months with a foundation stone laying ceremony within the north of the country. This followed earlier attempts to begin construction that stalled and a decade of negotiations.
For Beijing, which means that its aspirations of connecting the continent with Southeast Asia all of the approach to Singapore might be one step closer to reality. The Chinese want southern access to the ocean as a part of the One Belt, One Road initiative.
But within the case of Vientiane, a stop on this ambitious path, the impact may very well be enormous. As a city already growing rapidly, the leap towards full connectivity to the region will come prior to most Lao people could imagine.
The government talks in regards to the potential of the railway, highlighting a shift in occupied with what has at all times been considered Laos’ principal geographic weakness – the incontrovertible fact that it’s locked to land.
Now, with the appearance of a physical infrastructure connection to the world’s largest population, Vientiane is seeking to capitalize on land connections.
“Earlier we talked about the unfavorable geographical location of the country. However, we see that this disadvantage is turning into an advantage,” said Dr. Leeber Leebouapao of the National Institute of Economic Research, a key policy advisor to the central government.
With the agreed Vientiane-Hanoi highway also within the pipeline within the medium term, Dr Leeber said he expected the capital to “thrive” as a point of interest between China and other hubs within the region.
“Once the railway and highway are accomplished, connectivity will facilitate higher economic relations, greater movement of individuals and money. Inflow and outflow. This is a brand new phenomenon here,” Dr. Leeber said.
“It will become a shopping center for investors, factories, banks. Everything will change very quickly.”
While the economic viability of the $6 billion project has yet to be tested, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Vientiane fears that Laos may very well be crushed by debt and that the market opportunities can be “incredible” for the town and country.
“Will the train help Laos by helping to create economic opportunities in the context of it being a land-connected country? “Definitely,” said Stephen Schipani, officer in control of the ADB-Lao PDR resident mission.
“I at all times ask, ‘Is Laos landlocked?’ And people take a look at you strangely because they know that Laos has no direct access to the ocean. But in point of fact it’s so. He has access to a sea of people.”
This sea could attract latest waves of tourists, including hundreds of thousands of tourists from southern China, in addition to as much as 100,000 foreign staff, which might be needed to finish the project, given Laos’ lack of information within the rail industry.
It could also bring latest migration from abroad and domestically as more people seek opportunities within the capital.
Vientiane’s population is predicted to grow by greater than 50 percent over the subsequent decade, transforming it from a sleepy riverside city right into a potentially strategic axis of trade and growth.
Laos’ relatively small population means it’s unlikely to have the ability to compete in sectors equivalent to manufacturing, but reduced import and export costs are expected to stimulate potential in other sectors.
“There are opportunities in value-added food, niche agricultural products and organic crops are a big potential advantage,” Schipani said. “Scheduled rail services can transport products across borders.”
The proposed high-speed train will run at a speed of 160 km/h, reducing the travel time from Vientiane to Kunming to simply 10 hours.
However, the true value of the project can only be realized when Laos’ southern counterparts, on Beijing’s orders, complete construction of their very own sections of the railway. Negotiations are ongoing for sections in other locations.
“We are just a small country, and China has a big market,” Dr. Leeber said. “The query is tips on how to benefit from this chance. If we do not do it, another person will.”
This article was first published in Channel NewsAsian cities of the longer term in Asia on March 23, 2017
