Alounkeo Kittikhoun (right) presenting a memento to Malaysian ambassador Edi Irwan Mahmud. - VT
VIENTIANE (Vientiane Times/Asia News Network): Laos has become a logistics hub for the region, with Thanaleng Dry Port and railways playing an integral part of this connectivity, the dry port’s developer told visiting Malaysian diplomats.
Improved logistics and connectivity with cost-effective services has opened lucrative opportunities for businesses.
Since it opened for service in December 2021 in Vientiane, the dry port’s network covers several countries in the region, including Malaysia, Tee Chee Seng, Vice President of Vientiane Logistics Park Co Ltd, the dry port's developer, told the Malaysian ambassador to Laos, Edi Irwan Mahmud, and his entourage.
Through the Thanaleng Dry Port International Border Checkpoint (Cargo Terminal), where the Laos-China and Laos-Thailand Railways converge, cargo from South-East Asia can access the fast-growing Chinese market and high-end European markets through rail networks offering competitive services.
“Landlocked Laos has now become a land link,” said Tee Chee Seng, a Malaysian national operating a business in Laos for several years.
Cargo from China arriving in Vientiane by rail can reach Malaysia and Singapore overland by road.
“Now we can say that Thanaleng Dry Port is a small connector between Asean and China,” he said, adding that this logistics connectivity will bolster alternative Asean manufacturing bases.
To tap the production base potential, the developer of the US$727-million dry port and Vientiane Logistics Park is setting up a logistics complex comprising seven zones, including an export processing zone, where investors are welcome to do business.
Business areas to be offered include agriculture, pharmaceuticals and halal food processing for export.
The developer is preparing all necessary infrastructure and related legal procedures to facilitate business operations.
“Of course, as a developer, we need to get everything in place. Investors just bring know-how and investment capital,” Tee Chee Seng said.
He recommended that investors from Malaysia – an important market for halal food – should focus on halal food processing opportunities in Laos.
His company, he said, is preparing related factors to support such businesses, and he hoped Lao and Malaysian authorities will support halal food standard certification.
In addition, to facilitate and hasten trade in agriproducts, an important traded good between Asean and China, the developer is working with the Chinese side to build a Chinese-certified sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) centre at the Vientiane Logistics Park to certify farm products.
Construction of the centre is expected to begin in July, and it will take about five months to complete. Once the SPS centre is operational, products labelled with SPS customs seals there can directly enter the Chinese market without having to undergo SPS checks at the Chinese border.
By doing business in Laos, investors will enjoy a number of incentives, including a corporate tax holiday of eight years to 16 years and value-added tax reduction, the vice president told the guests.
Cheap electricity in Laos also makes made-in-Laos products more competitive.
Alounkeo Kittikhoun, the President of the Executive Board of Strategy and Planning at PTL Holding Company Limited, the parent company of Vientiane Logistics Park Co Ltd, said the dry port is one of nine dry ports Laos plans to develop to bolster the government’s efforts to transform the nation into a land link country.
The dry port’s managing director, Sakhone Philangam, said that all facilities at his multimodal transport node have been developed with the aim of facilitating trade.
Thanks to the facilitation and railway operations, cargo including agricultural products moving between China and Asean states is delivered much faster, helping bring fresher seasonal fruits and crops to customers.
The dry port is part of the packaged Lao Logistics Link (LLL) project, which includes Vung Ang seaport in Vietnam’s Ha Tinh province, a planned railway linking the seaport to the dry port in Vientiane, and a logistics park in Khammuan province through which the planned railway will run.
Through Vung Ang seaport, cargo can reach countries in the Pacific region, the developer said.
Last year, the dry port handled almost 50,000 containers, which went to countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and China.
Learning of the opportunities, the Malaysian ambassador, Edi Irwan Mahmud, expressed hope that both sides can move forward to another sector of cooperation.
