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© 2021 AFPLaos opens scenic railway built on a mountain of Chinese debt
By Lisa Martin and Pathom Sangwongwanich BANGKOK©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
16 Comments
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Hiro
The reason why countless countries still willing into jump into these deb trap is because there is a lot of money to be made under the table. A lot of cash could simply disappear and put under increase material cost etc. Corruption and greed is the core reason why anyone government would even think of borrowing money to build these kind of large projects. Because they aren't worried and would just leave this mess for the next government to clean up in the near future.
Happy Day
China has empowered itself by enriching many in politics, government, academia, and business all over the world.
There is no such thing as loyalty to country when faced with the prospect of self enrichment.
Hello Kitty 321
So the West (IMF) has never loaned money to other countries build their infrastructure?
Laos is a landlocked country with minimal access to the rest of the world. Thanks to their new railroad, they will now be able to boost exports and by so doing, their economy.
quercetum
I have two debt traps, one back home and one in Japan. If I don't pay, the evil banks are going to repossess them. In 2008, there were over 6 million American homes lost to debt traps. Be careful!
Fighto!
Laos has been set up to fail. They will default on their huge Chinese loans, and then surrender large tracts of land for China to build huge Military bases.
There is zero justification for a fast train white elephant project in 3rd world nations. They need clean water, food, machinery, medicine and hospitals.
JeffLee
It's a passenger train. The only thing its "exports" is people.
Ubesh
China wants to be able to use its own infrastructure to import and export goods, so the Chinese will inevitably just send all its exports down the railway and profit off the middle-man margin that would have otherwise gone to some other company and forgive Laos after some political concessions.
Hello Kitty 321
@JeffLee
Railway lines are capable of carrying freight as well as passengers. Already the first freight train arrived in Vientiane, and it did so in half the time required previously.
Souphy Vongsenesouk
Faulty news. Please get the info straight. The project cost over $6 billion. Laos government barrow 30 percent of that. And the rest 70 percent were by the Chinese company. Laos government does not own $6 billion to the Chinese government. The rails projects were successful. The number of riders were report to book theirs trip in advance because the train was always full. And they also have cargo transport too, that is an average 50 containers per days to Laos and Thailand.
quercetum
I am not sure why one would think a railway is built only for passenger trains. It shows very little understanding of economics. It’s not the tickets that passengers buy that will pay for this project; it’s the shipping. We see freight cars in Shinjuku everyday. That’s like saying a highway is built only for cars and not trucks transporting goods. In fact the purpose of the railway, part of the Belt Road Initiative is to increase trade by transporting goods. Four passenger services and 14 freight trips will operate daily, local media reported.
Initially, at least 300,000 containers from Laos, mainly from the Thanaleng Dry Port, are expected to be transported via the railway to Europe through China each year, and shipments are estimated to rise further to between 1.2 and 1.8 million containers a year, according to Chanthone Sitthixay, chairman of Vientiane Logistics Park Co. Ltd.
A million containers and in a country that only previously had 4 km of railway tracks. The railway will connect the Chinese city of Kunming to the Lao capital Vientiane, with grand plans for high-speed rail to ultimately snake down through Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore. China has hit this one out of the park I’m afraid.
BackpackingNepal
If by US, UK, Japan, it'd be 'Achievement', 'Great Connection', 'Wonderful Aid', 'Tremendous Help' etc filled with positive words but it's China, it's debt, Poor Build, Slave etc full of negativity.
Pukey2
The west: Don't do business with China. Don't let them help you build roads, rail
Poor countries: What's the alternative? Will you help us?
The west: ZZZZZZZ
Desert Tortoise
Not very much. The US railroad expansion was financed by a land subsidy. The US government gave each railroad twenty square miles of public land for each mile of rail laid. The original subsidy was ten square miles but that piffling subsidy didn't get many takers. When the US Government increased the subsidy to 20 square miles of land for each mile of rail construction took off. Many of these railroads never operated profitably but survived by developing and selling their land holdings. Southern Pacific Railroad was the largest private land owner in California for example for a very long time. When many railroads finally used the last of their land they found they could not survive as a profitably business relying strictly on revenues from their railroad and mostly merged with larger railroad companies.
Tom San
You know what's coming when you can't cough up the dough.