The high-speed train is operated like an airline, with the stations in the main cities looking like airport terminals. Like at airports, passengers and baggage go through security x-ray machines, and they have to wait in a large transit hall with cafés and shops, until about five minutes before the train arrives, when their boarding tickets are checked before entering the platform. During the journey, while the train travels at between 150-160km/hr, cabin crew dressed like air hostesses go around with trolleys selling eats and drinks.

“People fail to understand that Laos is a landlocked country, and logistically, we are disadvantaged at doing business with other countries. Laos shipments were going mainly through Thailand, and the costs were very high. This rail has high potential to assist Laos exports of minerals, agriculture and manufacturing produce to China and other countries,” economics professor and vice president of Laos National University, Phouphet Kyophilavong, told IDN in an interview. “It’s a big opportunity for us in terms of economic development. It should attract FDIs from China and other countries.”

“Before the railway, traveling to the north was very difficult. Roads were bad, too many accidents and other problems. Now even poor people can travel to Vientiane and other parts, less costly than bus and air,” added Phouphet. The Laos-China Railway Company (LCR) that runs the rail system is a joint venture between three Chinese state-owned enterprises that collectively hold a 70 percent ownership stake and one Laos state-owned enterprise that owns 30 percent. The agreement was signed in 2016 as a build-operate-transfer (BOT) concession agreement with the government of Laos.

Laos — which was a French colony for almost a century in the 19th and 20th centuries — never had a railway. Thus, the Chinese have set up the Laos Railway Vocational Training College in Vientiane to train a whole team of Laotians to run their railway. Twenty-year-old Fony Sulijul, who comes from a poor northern Laos village near Boten, is training at the college to become a railway technician. He told IDN that the railway is creating opportunities for young people in those remote areas to come to Vientiane to study because it wouldn’t take 2 to 3 days to go back home — it takes less than 10 hours now. Chinese experts train While he studies Chinese at a local language school here in the evenings, during the day, he trains at the college to become a railway technician. “Chinese experts train us in working in the railway electrical system and its management. They teach in Chinese language but with Laos co-trainers,” he said. “After finishing the three-year diploma course, I want to work for the Laos railway. I would like to be a train driver.” He said that at present, the trains are driven by Chinese with a Laotian co-driver in the cabin.

Fony said that the Chinese trainers tell them, “We want to train you and leave you to run the train system” in three years’ time.

The World Bank, in a report titled “Land-locked to Land-linked,” published in 2020, said that if the countries undertake complementary policy reforms, the Laos-China railway could make Laos more attractive as an investment destination and link it to major production and consumption areas in China and the Asean region, allowing firms to access global value chains.

“A number of planned export processing zones around train stations could serve as attractive investment locations, as long as they are properly equipped and effectively managed. With efficient logistics services, Laos PDR could develop into a logistics hub, while targeted investments in agriculture and tourism could result in new export opportunities,” the report said, predicting that with proper government policies, trade flows between Laos and China could be increased three-fold via the rail network.

Overseas critics have pointed out that the rail stations built in cities like Boten, Luang Prabang and Vientiane are 10 km or more from the city centers. But local development planners pointed out to IDN that this is a deliberate forward-looking strategy to develop industrial zones surrounded by new “villages” to spur economic activity and spread the populations from congested city centers.

Already, container goods trains ply the rail network at regular intervals. Phouphet said he is currently doing a study on how to maximize the use of the railway and what policies the government needs to come up with.

He argues that the Laos Railway project would take a long time to see economic returns. “But the social and economic impact on the society is already showing positive results. Surely, we have debts. But with China, we can negotiate on that,” Phouphet says confidently. “China will not allow its neighbors to fail economically. Terms are always renegotiated. They (outsiders) always criticize Chinese loans. But this is a significant loan for Laos economic development.”