(Words excerpts)

[Commentary]

This is a journey of a grain of rice traveling from a millennium ago on the Silk Road.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, drought-tolerant and prolific Champa rice was introduced from Southeast Asia to China, increasing the crop yields greatly in Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. A thousand years later, a Chinese entrepreneur comes to Laos with a Chinese-standard technology, bringing benefits to the people in Laos and China.

[Commentary]

In 2014, Xu Guowu came to Laos with the Delegation of the Belt and Road of Hunan Province for new projects and he made an immediate decision to make an investment in Laos. What kept him staying there was aroma of rice left deep in his memory.

[Commentary]

Xu Guowu had thought of exporting Laotian rice to China but it turned out to be not that easy. Laotian rice was not accorded with the strict international export standard.

[Actual sound] Ms. Khemmany Pholsena, Minister of Industry and Commerce

It was quite a long period of time. For many years, we had been thinking of an official channel for exporting Laotian rice. But no one can do that.

[Commentary]

The Belt and Road initiated by China allowed Xu Guowu to see a hope. He made up his mind to invest a plant. It took three years to build up a production chain of exporting Laotian rice from nothing to something. Finally in 2016, a history of zero export of Laotian rice ended and Laotian rice went into Chinese market.

[Actual sound] Xu Guowu, a Chinese enterpreneur

What we did was to make the local governments and people believe and acknowledge that we came here really for doing something for them. We formed a community of shared destiny with them for mutual development.