The Lao government has declared the Vientiane–China high speed rail project (54,064.8 billion kip) to be a priority transport project. The 421 km rail route will pass through Boten, Luang, and Namtha provinces to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It will allow a passenger train to run at 200 km per hour from Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, to the China–Lao border, and then to Vientiane and Thailand. Laos is also planning another high speed track between Nong Khai, just across the border from Vientiane, and Bangkok. The country had signed an MoU with China in 2010 to carry out the project under a JV, with China and Laos holding 70 per cent and 30 per cent stake, respectively.
