Mr. Viengkhone Sitthixay interviewed with the media

The first freight train from China passes through Laos on its way to Thailand

The Thanaleng dry port in Vientiane handled the delivery of the first rail freight shipment from China to Thailand, creating another milestone in a fast, cost-effective transportation and logistics system.

Mr. Viengkhone Sitthixay (5th left) and representatives of stakeholders opened a freight train between the Laos-China railway and the Laos-Thailand railway.

A ceremony took place at the shallow port on Thursday to transfer goods from a train on the 1,435-metre-long Laos-China railway to a train on the 1-metre-long Laos-Thailand railway.

The train, carrying 286 tons of fresh vegetables in a chain of frozen containers, departed Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, on Tuesday. The containers were loaded onto a train on the Laos-Thailand railway at the dry port before departing at around 3pm on Thursday to Bangkok, where the shipment is expected to arrive at around 5am at the latest.

Viengkhone Sitthixay, vice president of Vientiane Logistics Park Co., Ltd., which developed the dry port, said it took about 55 hours in total for the shipment to travel from Kunming to the Thai capital.

The new mode of transport is expected to shorten one-day travel times and reduce logistics costs by 20%, compared to the previous system involving both rail and road transport, the China Daily reported, citing China Kunming Railway Office Group. On the return trip, the ship will carry fruits from Thailand to China such as longan, durian. "Transportation costs go down a lot. It creates great transport potential for the region," Viengkhone said, adding that this creates a great incentive for business opportunities.

China Kunming Railway Office Group believes that the efficiency and stability of the new cold storage logistics chain channel will boost trade cooperation between China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, according to China Daily.

Cross-border freight on the China-Laos railway has so far involved Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Singapore. The news agency added that more than 3,600 trains transported 2.5 million tons of goods across the border. Viengkhone is optimistic that rail transport via dry port will grow significantly in the coming years thanks to easier loading and unloading processes.

Last year, the multimodal transport dry port handled more than 40,000 containers. According to Viengkhone, this volume is expected to increase from 100,000 to 120,000 containers this year. He added that the authorities of Laos, Thailand and China are promoting the transport of goods through this route.

Một cần cẩu chuyển container từ tuyến đường sắt Lào-Trung Quốc sang tuyến đường sắt Lào-Thái Lan.

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