Railway comes as a boost for Lao business

Landmark project becomes logistics hub in region, bringing drastic changes

Nilavan, a railway freight duty officer at the Vientiane South Station on the China-Laos Railway, is excited to see the drastic changes in the station over the past two and a half years.

"We now have more and more customers coming to ship their goods at our station," said Nilavan, a 26-year-old Laotian, in fluent Mandarin.

In 2023, the daily dispatch capacity of fruits was only about 60 containers and the number has now grown to over 100 during peak time, said Nilavan, adding that the railway not only connects Laos, China and Thailand but also further links to Europe.