Hunan news, November 14 (China News) - Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and President of the People's Republic of China arrived in Vientiane on the 13th to start a state visit to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. During the visit, representatives from China and Laos signed cooperative documents on construction of economic corridor between China and Laos and construction of infrastructure, among which Ministry of Agriculture of China and its counterpart of Laos officially signed a memo of understanding on jointly building a Laos-China modern agricultural industry demonstrative park. In addition, it was agreed that a joint enterprise of Xuanye (Laos) Co., Ltd., a Hunan enterprise, and AVIC International Beijing Co., Ltd. would work with Laos to prepare for the modern agricultural industry park in Vientiane.

Over the past more than three years, Xuanye (Laos) Co., Ltd. has deepened its roots in agricultural land in the south of Laos by applying Chinese technology and outcomes of Chinese standards to rice growing and processing procedures in Laos, which ends the Laotian history of zero export of rice. During this process, the local farmers have been greatly encouraged to grow rice, and productive efficiency and yields have been increased while the originality and zero pollution of Laotian rice still continue.

Since this year, Xuanye, working positively with Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos, has begun to create a new type agricultural industry park in Vientiane, trying to synchronize with the China-Laos Railway Road in construction, to develop a large-size eco-agricultural project combining agricultural products breeding and process, storage and logistics, trading and display, and scientific research and trainings.

Khemmany Pholsena, Minister of Industry and Commerce of Laos, express that this industry park Xuanye is building up will greatly increase the functions of China-Laos railway road in trades. Laos is a traditional agricultural county which in the past was unable to deliver many produced agricultural products or sell out the delivered agricultural products because of underdevelopment of infrastructure and inconvenient transportation. This new type agricultural industry park will become a process plant, logistics tool and trading platform for many agricultural products as well as catalyst for farmers’ incentives.

Bounchanh Kombounyasith, Director of Department of Planting, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos, thought that the new type agricultural industry park in Vientiane will become a ‘+’ for China-Laos railway. “Since groundbreaking of Lao-China railway, I have always had a dream of making agricultural cooperation the plus in ‘Lao-China railway +’. During President Xi’s stay in Laos, Ministry of Agriculture of China and its counterpart of Laos officially signed a memo of understanding on jointly building a Laos-China modern agricultural industry demonstrative park. The value of this plus is appearing and the dream of agricultural modernization of Laos is being realized at an accelerated speed.”

According to Chairman Xu Guowu of Xuanye Co., this new type agricultural industry park in Vientiane is not just an agricultural industry park. Moreover, “it will become an extension of value of China-Laos Railway” because it will redeploy the major agricultural production base in Laos to provide logistic conditions and innovate processing mode so that many green agricultural products in Laos picked in Laos in the morning can be served on the table in China. In a long run, this agricultural industry park will become a bag of crops and a basket of vegetables serving the consumers in China.

Related link: introduction of the new type agricultural industry park in Vientiane, Laos

The new type agricultural industry park in Laos is a large ecological agricultural industry project jointly planned and constructed by Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos, Xuanye (Laos) Co., Ltd., AVIC International Beijing Co., Ltd.

Xuanye (Laos) Co., Ltd., established in October 2014 and applied to and approved by Ministry of Commerce of China, is a wholly-funded subsidiary of Hunan Xuanye Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. it is mainly engaged in growing, purchasing, processing and import and export trading of agricultural and forestry products. Hunan Xuanye Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. is a major enterprise supported by Chinese government in combination with the Belt and Road policy. It is also the first company in the history of Laos that exported Laotian rice to China in order to promote Laos-China trading business, making great contributions to the agricultural industrialization of Laos.

Xuanye eco-agricultural industry park in Laos will become a new type eco-agricultural industry park which is largest in Southeast Asia, first rate in Asia and influential worldwide. In this park, an entire agricultural product chain integrates breeding and process of agricultural products with storage logistics, trading and display, and scientific research and training, in combination with superiority in location, oriented by scientific technology and based on ecological organics, and will finally become a national reserve center of Laotian agricultural products. This project will be a Laotian international purchase and supply platform oriented to China and a modern logistic center of agricultural and sideline products facing to the world as well as a demonstrative park for promotion of logistics for agricultural and sideline products in Laos.

As a key project under the Belt and Road in China, it’s accorded with national development strategy in China and that in Laos, highly concerned praised by ministries and departments in China and Laos. Development of this project will be closely combined with the economic lifeline of China-Laos railway to form a community of common destiny. Upon the completion of China-Laos section of Trans-Asian Railway, Vientiane will become a transit center for logistics service covering its surrounding area of 500km radius and hence a distribution center for the whole Southeast Asia (rail-served inland port) covering Southeast Asia countries including whole Laos, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia, which provides very convenient traffic conditions for the logistics development of this project.

This project will greatly enhance the development of modern agriculture in Laos, and play a prominent role in training agricultural talents for Laos, improving its position in the world and accelerating the economic development. 

[Editor in charge: Shi Lingwei]