"Laos: Belt and Road poster child – or problem child?" 29 September 2023

...The US$5.9 billion China-Laos railway has pushed the small, Southeast Asian country closer to its dream of being land-linked, not land-locked...

But 22 months after the railway was opened in December 2021, the benefits of that investment are spread unevenly...Among the nearly 7,000 families who were impacted, many grumble they have lost out when they were resettled...

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Data from the Laos Tourism Department for the first half of 2023 indicates over 1.6 million foreign visitors – up from just 42,000 during 2022, when the impact of the pandemic still lingered...“The project stimulates the tourism sector and local businesses immediately,” said a Lao economist...

But Toshiro Nishizawa, from the University of Tokyo’s School of Public Policy, said Laos lacks the skilled labor to reap the benefits of connectivity. It could profit from high-end Chinese tourism, but Chinese companies tend to dominate that business...

China’s major investments in roads, hydropower, agriculture and mining have also been associated with environmental problems and community displacement...

...many villagers were pushed out of homes that had spacious farmland nearby to make way for track, stations, tunnels and bridges, and then relocated to more confined spaces within resettlement villages set up by the Lao-China Railway Company.

“We have houses to live in but no land. We have to climb a mountain to reach our old farms,” lamented one villager from Xieng Ngeun district in Luang Prabang province, who said that they have to walk at least two hours to farm rice...

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Displaced locals haven’t just lost their traditional homes and livelihoods. They also lament the loss of their heritage as the project flooded Buddhist temples in their old villages which they could not afford to dismantle and rebuild at their resettlement sites...

The Lao government has leaned heavily on foreign assistance to support the economy for decades and now financial liabilities from mega projects have plunged the country deep into the red. The World Bank said that by 2022, Laos’ public debt soared to 110% of its GDP, with about half of the external debt owed to China.

Dr. Jayant Menon, senior fellow with the Regional Economic Program at ISEAS said that "...the debt situation in Laos has reached a critical level,” and there’s no doubt “that debt from BRI is a major part of the problem” – including Laos’ 30% stake in the China-Laos railway....