Laos

Laos and Thailand have agreed on the construction of a third and fourth Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River. Thailand remains Laos’ largest trading partner, and the two countries benefit from tourists and visitors who go their border areas, especially where travel is easy. Already linked by land, air and water, a new bus route was added in early 2008 between the Lao capital Vientiane and the north-eastern city of Khon Kaen in Thailand.

VIENTIANE (Newsmekong/IPS) -Avian flu poses a mix of challenges for a Least Developing Country like Laos, which also to watch transboundary movement of fowl with the four countries it shares borders with, according to Dr Bounkhouang Khambounheuang, Director General of the Livestock and Fisheries Department of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Vientiane, Laos. He is also with the National Committee for Communicable Disease Control, the body responsible for overseeing efforts at controlling avian flu.

VIENTIANE - A group of 837 illegal Lao migrants arrived in Vientiane on June 22 after spending years suffering in Thai detention camps.

VIENTIANE, Jun 1 (Newsmekong) - An outbreak of avian flu in northern Laos earlier this year has demonstrated that despite the government’s ongoing vigilance, this South-east Asian country faces a continuing threat from the disease.

 

The first outbreak of avian flu in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in early 2004 struck 45 poultry farms throughout the country, 38 of which were in and around the capital of Vientiane. The outbreak resulted in the loss of 155,000 birds, a third of which were infected by the disease.

 

QUANG TRI, Vietnam – Ho Long’s family farm has 2,000 banana trees, from which they can pick some 20 bunches of the fruit each day. But unlike other families, Ho Long does not sell the harvested bananas in his mountain farm. Instead, twice a day, he hops on his Minsk motorbike and drives some five kilometres to the crossroads to sell their produce.

BANGKOK, Jul 19 - Regional development plans in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) are grounded in the building of an extensive infrastructural structure that integrates all its countries into an unique ”growth area”. A network of transnational roads and, to a lesser extent, rail routes that links transport systems, power grids and markets across and beyond the sub-region is meant to facilitate fuller participation of GMS countries in the regional and global economy by enhancing their competitiveness as an economic bloc.

VIENTIANE - The Lao government has approved plans by two Chinese
companies to conduct a 30-month survey for the feasibility of
developing the Paklay Hydroelectric Power Project in Xayaboury province.

Six months are neither long nor short. For most people, life is ordinary, with nothing too exciting. Study, work, rest… it’s the same everyday. Time passes by like this. However, for the sixth group of 13 volunteers who went to Laos from Shanghai, the six months from October 2006 to April 2007 were a unique and unforgettable experience, during which curiosity, joy, difficulty, homesickness, exchange and conflicts were interwoven into their medical and health service and in their teaching of English and Chinese. Reporter Wen Junhua paid a visit to Laos in October 2006 and got a full picture of the sweetness and bitterness of the life of the volunteers.