(KPL) Thailand tops the foreign investment in Laos with 1.5 billion US dollars invested in various projects in the last eight years, has said the Investment Promotion Department, Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The department said in its recently released report that the investment from Thailand made Vietnam and China the second and third largest foreign investment in Laos although they ranked first and third largest in the first nine months of 2008, in which Vietnam contributed 181 million US dollars and China did 111 million US dollars to the investment environment of Laos.

Thailand, also the first largest trade partner of Laos, ranked second in the list of foreign investment in the first nine months of 2008, which invested 173 US dollars in various projects across the country.

Top ten largest foreign investors in Laos in the last eight years include
1. Thailand, 2. China,
3. Vietnam, 4. France,
5. Japan, 6. The Republic of Korea,
7. India, 8. Australia,
9. Malaysia and 10. Singapore.

The total foreign investment in Laos has reached 6 billion USD, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Laos reported.

Top 10 list of foreign investors in Laos is as follows:
1. Thailand, (1.355 billion USD in 169 projects)
2. China, (1.138 billion USD in 237 projects)
3. Viet Nam (535.7 million USD in 120 projects)
4. France (428.2 million USD in 58 projects)
5. Japan (420.3 million USD in 33 projects)
6. India (350.2 million USD in 3 projects)
7. Australia (330.8 million USD in 27 projects)
8. South Korea (294.4 million USD in 105 projects)
9. Malaysia (135.2 million USD in 33 projects)
10. Singapore (101.1 million USD in 22 projects)

Other countries that showed high foreign investment in Laos include Canada (ranking 11), Swizerland (ranking 12), England (ranking 13), Russia (ranking 14), Norway (ranking 15), Taiwan (ranking 16), United State (ranking 17), Germany (ranking 18), Poland (ranking 19), Italy (ranking 20)

Lao agencies attributed increases in foreign investment to the country’s open policy and political stability.

According to the Department of Foreign Investment Promotion and Management under the above ministry, investors from 37 countries and territories have invested in 1,031 projects in Laos.

Source: kpl and ecom

(KPL) Chinese experts have discovered a strain of Lao native tea was estimated at least 600-year-old in Oudomsay province.

A recent survey, conducted by a group of Chinese experts has discovered a strain of native tea which the Chinese experts are conducting a research on original background.

This is a strain of native tea that was dispersedly grown 600 years ago in Laos especially in Oudomsay province...more

According to local news source disclosed that the discovery of native tea is identified in five districts of Oudomsay province namely: Say, Houn, Nga, Baeng and Pakbaeng.

These native tea bushes were discovered dispersedly in different natural places covering about 1,000 ha.

Chinese exports said that one of native tea bushes were discovered in the nature that it is nearly the graveyard was identified that this graveyard might have 1,000 years ago therefore one of discovered native tea bushes might has as age as graveyard.

They disclosed that these native tea bushes would be high quality and excellent taste, in additional there can also be used to cure the people’s some diseases in particularly blood pressure and others.

Now there are three Chinese companies of Sheunzerming, Shanmou and Dansavane have made decision to make the contracts of purchase from local authorities.

Source: kpl

This photo, published on Wednesday, February 20, 2008, shows Hong Kong singer and actress Gigi Leung (L) and Sammi Cheung at a Hong Kong airport, waiting to set off on their charity journey to Laos.

BEIJING, Feb. 20 -- Hong Kong singer and actress Gigi Leung and Sammi Cheung embarked on a charity trip to Laos on Tuesday, on a mission to draw attention to the nation's malnourished children through a 30-hour outdoor experience.

The Hong Kong-based publication Tungstar reports that the pair will live a primitive life during the campaign, camping in the fields and eating wild game for food...more info>>

"I have brought everything that may help me, including a pillow and a nightgown," Leung said nervously of the potential survival challenges.


Photo: Gigi Leung

As part of the 30-Hour Famine campaign launched by the international organization World Vision aimed at fighting hunger, the trip is expected to draw more celebrities eager to use their star power to enact change.


Photo: Sammi Cheung

Leung and Cheung are two of the project's three ambassadors in Hong Kong.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)

(dpa) - A Chinese automobile maker is looking to land-locked Laos for an $80 million assembly plant to produce vehicles for the local market and exports, Radio Vientiane reported Wednesday.
Chang Jung Xin, chairman of the Futam Group from China's Guangdong province met with Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh in Vientiane on Tuesday to discuss the investment, said the state-run radio station in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok.
Chang set no timeframe for the investment, which proposes to use Laos as a production base for Futam brand buses and cars for the domestic market and exports to neighbouring countries.
The assembly plant proposes to employ 2,000 Lao workers, said the radio.

Lao sunlabob aims at making solar energy commercially viable yet affordable for the rural poor. It has succeeded in developing a commercially viable business model providing high quality solar PV systems to the rural poor at a price they can afford. The success and sustainability of the scheme place this project among 10 global projects shortlisted for the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy, popularly known as the “Green Oscars”.

Former US vice-president Al Gore will present the awards and more than 2,00,000 pounds (Rs 17 lakhs approx) of prize money to the winners at the Royal Geographical Society here on June 21.

“The Ashden Awards are a powerful reminder that well designed and managed local sustainable energy initiatives can tackle climate change while meeting the needs of local communities. Tackling these issues simultaneously - in both rich and poor countries - is critical to addressing the twin planetary challenges of climate change and sustainable development,” Al Gore said.

Sunlabob Renewable Energies Ltd from Laos will compete with contenders from Bangladesh, China, Ghana, India, Nepal, Peru, Philippines and Tanzania for the five awards and the prize money earmarked to help project expansion and replication in other communities both locally and nation wide.

A brief list of all 2007 international finalists follows: ... more info:.

BANGLADESH: Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha for building up a fleet of 88 boats that use solar energy to bring education, training and renewable energy supplies to over 400,000 people living in the remote Chalanbeel region of Bangladesh.

CHINA: Beijing Shenzhou Daxu Bio-energy Technology Company Ltd for developing and marketing an innovative stove design that replaces coal by burning widely available crop waste as well as burning wood much more efficiently.

GHANA: Deng Ltd for developing a viable and sustainable business for the provision of solar-home-systems to rural areas where access to grid supply is limited.

INDIA: BIOTECH for developing and installing biogas plants in Kerala that use food waste which is often left out in the streets to rot, to generate gas for cooking.

INDIA: SKG Sangha for improving the lives of rural communities in Karnataka, South India by supplying them with both dung based biogas plants for cooking and a specially designed unit that turns the slurry from the biogas plant into high quality fertiliser.

LAO PDR: Sunlabob Renewable Energies Ltd for developing an innovative and commercially viable business model which provides high quality solar PV systems to the rural poor at a price they can afford.

NEPAL: Centre for Rural Technology, Nepal for upgrading over 2,400 traditional water mills in the Himalayas of Nepal and so , improving livelihoods for millers and mill users and stemming the rise in diesel mills.

PERU: Practical Action for transforming the lives of over 30,000 people living in remote villages in the Andes by providing them with electricity generated by micro-hydro plants.

PHILIPPINES: Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. for developing a ram pump design built to last at least twenty years and for bringing clean water to over 15,000 people through the installation of these ram pumps in 68 hillside villages in the Philippines.

TANZANIA: Zara Solar Ltd. for providing high quality, reliable solar-home-systems at affordable prices to communities lacking access to a reliable source of energy.

source: http://www.ashdenawards.org/international_finalists_press_2007
www.sunlabob.com

Foreign investment on the rise in Laos
(KPL) 440 million USD of foreign investment was pumped into Laos over the first six months of the 2006-2007 fiscal year which began from October 2006. The Lao government granted licences to 122 foreign investment projects over the period, accounting for 70 percent of the government’s target of 171 for the whole year. The majority of investments were made in the areas of agriculture, garment and textiles, industry, handicraft, mining, energy, trade, hotels, restaurants and services.

For the period, the biggest investors into the country are as follow:
1. China
2. France
3. Japan
4. The Republic of Korea
5. Myanmar
6. Poland
7. Sweden
8. Thailand
9. The US
10.Viet Nam

Source: kpl.net.la