A Laotian student who is studying in a top-notch Chinese university lauded the fruitful achievement of China-led trade cooperation with his country.
Laos was accepted as a dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at the 25th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, held in north China's Tianjin on Monday.
During an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Eakvixay Tran, a Laotian student in Tsinghua University, mentions that the China-Laos Railway, a flagship project within the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, offers more than just a boost in trade.
Connecting Kunming City in southwest China with Vientiane, the capital of Laos, the rail line has significantly enhanced regional connectivity, boosted regional economic growth, and facilitated people-to-people and cultural exchanges, according to Tran.
"The thing is that the Chinese government and the Laos government have a corporation to build a train route from Vientiane, my hometown, to Kunming, which is in the southern part of China, and attach the two countries together by train route. Because like the thing that, our country, even though we have resources, but we have only eight million populations and our land isn't big, and we also don't have like a trade route via ocean because we are a landlocked country. So, China was like, if you were a landlocked country, you just build your train route, they just invest in your train route and then we can do trade together. A trade route means a lot to us, means a lot to the country, means a lot to the people. Because when we have train routes, we can do so many trades, right? Trades mean GDP, so when GDP grows, a lot of people will get richer. And a lot of foreign goods will come to Laos and a lot of Laotian goods will go to foreign countries, like China, for example, and China is a big market, like is the biggest market I've ever seen," he said.
Official data showed that the China-Laos Railway transported more than 3.43 million tonnes of goods in the first seven months of 2025, hitting a new high for the same period. The cargo value exceeded 15.4 billion yuan (about 2.14 billion U.S. dollars), surging 41 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, as China encourages its companies to invest and do business in Laos, helping the country to tap into its rich natural resources, Tran remains very optimistic about his country's development prospects.
"For China, to open the door for us to do trade with them means a lot. It means that we can start exporting goods. It means that we can start like developing our own culture. We can also start by advertising our culture, our food, our goods and also our people. Like me coming here to Tsinghua. What did the Chinese government do? Make a policy to encourage Chinese company to invest overseas. So when they encourage company to invest overseas, companies start investing. So a lot of Chinese companies have come to Laos towards these like in recent five years or recent 10 years. And then the thing is that like my dad and my mom both do businesses. They have their own company, they have their own like businesses to do. So I can see this influence happen in my own family, and I can see a lot of potentials now in Laos as we have trade routes and also have a really good relationship with China. And then also a lot of Chinese company come to do like businesses in our country also generated like country GDP and also revenue overall, which is super, super great," he said.
Laotian youth lauds fruitful results of trade cooperation with China
