In order to unlock the difficulties of land transportation in Laos, greatly improve transportation efficiency and level, and promote economic development, on September 26, the China-Laos Railway EMU project contract was signed in Beijing.

Ju Guojiang, Chairman of Lao China Railway Co., Ltd., Tian Xuehua, Chairman of CRRC Sifang Co., Ltd., and Lin Cunzeng, Chairman of CRRC Dalian Company, signed the contract on behalf of all parties. CRRC Vice President Ma Yunshuang, President Assistant Ning Wenze, and International Business Department General Manager Luo Chongfu attended the ceremony. Xiao Qianwen, General Manager of Laos China Railway Co., Ltd. hosted the signing ceremony in Vientiane, Laos via video link.

The China-Laos Railway is an inter-governmental cooperation project personally promoted by the top leaders of the two parties and the two countries. It is a strategic docking project between China’s One Belt One Road Initiative and Laos’ “turning a land-locked country into a land-linked country”. It is an important part of the Trans-Asian Railway. One Road, a landmark project of China-Laos friendship. The China-Laos Railway carries the common expectations of the two peoples and embodies the friendship between the two countries, which is of far-reaching significance for promoting and deepening the construction of a community of shared future for China and Laos.

The China-Laos Railway starts from Bo Ding, the border port of China and Laos in the north, to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, in the south, with a total length of 422.4km.

According to the EMU procurement contract, CRRC Sifang Co., Ltd., as the lead party, formed a consortium with CRRC Dalian Company to tailor-made centralized power EMUs with a speed of 160 kilometers per hour for the China-Laos Railway. The China-Laos Railway EMU is designed and manufactured with the concept of "extremely rich in Lao cultural characteristics, inheriting the friendship between China and Laos, reflecting the advanced and modern sense". It is a combination of Lao cultural elements and China's "Fuxing" technology, and will become a Chinese railway Bright business card of "Going Out".

The China-Laos Railway is a model project of regional interconnection and carries the entrustment and expectations of the top decision-makers of the two countries. The China-Laos Railway will upgrade the level of infrastructure construction in Laos, and the vehicles are expected to be delivered in September 2021. Editor/Sang Xiaomei