The country requires a budget of about US$5.4 billion (Bt179 billion) to spend on national socioeconomic development efforts per year, Deputy Planning and Investment Minister Khamlien Pholsena told a meeting to introduce the investment environment and policy in Laos.

The country also had to raise about $3 billion per year from the private sector to fund development.

In the era of integration, cooperation with the outside world is seen as essential for national socioeconomic development, a goal to which Laos has attached great importance.

The country has a open-door policy on investment cooperation with foreign countries, in particular, cooperation with China is in mutual and multiple forms through regional and international stages, he said.

Since the open-door policy on investment promotion and protection between Laos and China was signed in 1993, investment from China in Laos has grown.

Chinese investors now have over 838 projects in areas including agriculture, industry, mining and services with a combined value of more than $6.6 billion, making China the greatest source of investment in Laos.

A flagship of cooperation between the two is the Sino-Lao railway project, the first to connect Laos with the vast railway system in China using Chinese technology and equipment and supported by significant joint investment.

The project has a total investment of 40 billion yuan (Bt199 billion), 70 per cent of which comes from China, with 30 per cent from Laos.

The railway that will traverse 427 kilometres and is set to be completed by 2021 is seen to mark a significant milestone in the socioeconomic cooperation strategy of the two countries. China also ranks as the second largest trading partner with Laos, after Thailand.

Khamlien said this cooperation as well as investment promotion, exchanges of high-level officials and visits of people of the two countries has contributed to the development and poverty reduction of Laotians.

Such cooperation also provided a solid foundation for the implementation of the nation’s Five-Year Socioeconomic Development Plan (2016-20), Strategy 2025 and Vision 2030.

The meeting was essential and meaningful to both Laos and China because it has contributed to expanding the cooperative relationship between the two countries.