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JDB Crew Triumphs in Vientiane Traditional Boat Race

Thousands of people flocked to the Mekong yesterday to cheer for their favourite boat crew on a day of fine weather with temperatures just topping 30C at the annual Vientiane Boat Racing Festival, with the races taking place from 8am until 4pm.

Laos Seeks US Counterweight to Chinese Dependence

BANGKOK — Laos’ new government is making a delicate diplomatic pivot away from huge neighbor China, its chief source of investment, and toward faraway superpower America despite their troubled history.

In an encouraging move, Barack Obama last month became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the landlocked Southeast Asian nation. Ordinary Laotians watched rapt media coverage of Obama sipping out of a coconut in the ancient city of Luang Prabang, where he spent nearly a full day before attending a regional summit in the capital Vientiane.

“I became an instant fan” of the president, a 33-year-old government worker said, describing him as “easy to like.”

The day before his outing, Obama met for two and a half hours with President Bounnhang Vorachith. Acknowledging that both countries share a tortured past they must work to overcome, Obama pledged $90 million in U.S. aid for clearing the estimated 3 million tons of unexploded bombs still remaining from the American bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War.

There has been a clear change in momentum for U.S.-Laos cooperation this year. The prime example of this is February’s conclusion of a bilateral investment pact, which covers trade, intellectual property, skills development and other areas of cooperation.

U.S. companies are keen on expanding into one of Southeast Asia’s least developed markets. In September, General Electric signed a memorandum of understanding on energy-related training and research with Electricite du Laos, the state power company. Fast-food chain Texas Chicken plans to open its first location in Laos by the end of this year.

The Obama administration has tried to rebalance U.S. diplomatic policy with a shift in emphasis from the Middle East to Asia. The president saw his visit to Laos as one of his greatest foreign policy achievements, a golden opportunity to clear away the poisoned legacy of the Vietnam War.

Course change

China has been Laos’ main source of foreign direct investment, providing a total of $5.3 billion since 2001 — 60% more than Vietnam, the second-largest source. The construction of a $6 billion long-distance railroad and the launch of Laos’ first satellite both owe to Chinese support.

These aid flows rose dramatically in the past five years. With Myanmar and Vietnam distancing themselves from China and deepening ties with the U.S., Laos grew in geopolitical importance for China as the only outlet for its southern expansion policy, said Adisorn Semyaem,  a professor at Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University.

A turning point in Laos’ relationship with China came in April with a new government in Vientiane, led by Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith. Mr. Adisorn pointed PM has been changing in course toward a balanced approach to Beijing and Washington. Looming in the background of this shift is Vietnam. Most of the central figures in Laos’ government studied in Vietnam, which supported the founding of modern Laos in 1975 and continues to exert a strong political influence on the country. Thongloun’s new government came under pressure to correct the previous one’s overreliance on China, Adisorn Semyaem said.

Laos also harbors its own distrust toward China, especially toward its investments. Resentment can be heard in a village in central Laos where a Chinese company had mined for gold until a few years ago. “All that’s left is pollution and the unemployed,” a villager said. A number of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects have been shelved for various reasons, including a lack of transparency in the bidding process.

But a country aiming for 7.5% annual economic growth can hardly afford to spurn China’s liberal support and cast its lot with the U.S. overnight. Laos has of late seen a welcome increase in investment from neighboring Thailand. But Thongloun’s government still faces the daunting challenge of threading its way between two powers competing for influence in Asia.

Source: Nikkei Asian Review

Laos Orders Factory to Stop Recycling Spent Beer Malt Over Pollution Concerns

The Lao government ordered a factory in the capital Vientiane that recycles 80 tons of spent beer malt a day to shut down after its owners failed to control pollution from the process, RFA’s Lao Service has learned.

“We have suffered from the bad smell for over a year since the factory started operations,” Doung village chief Sinakhone Khottaphome told RFA’s Lao Service.

“The leftover malt is left in the yard, not kept in the safe warehouses,” he added. “So when the rain comes it flows into the fields and pollutes the water.”

The factory in the Saysettha district’s Doung village recycles spent brewer’s malt from the Lao Brewing Company breweries and exports the used grains to Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand Foods, where it is turned into animal feed.

Owned by Xaiyadeth Vongxay, the Lao factory began operations in May 2015, and has been the subject of many complaints and several provincial shutdown orders.

Xaiyadeth Vongxay is the son of Kissana Vongxay, the chairman of the Lao Brewery Company that brews the popular Beerlao and other beverages.

Ownership of the company is split between the Lao government and the Carlsberg brewing giant. It claims a 99 percent share of the Lao beer market.

While recycling spent beer malt is generally considered an environmentally sustainable practice, it also creates pollution on its own.

Spent beer malt is wet when it comes out of the brewing process and it can spoil rapidly causing both a horrible stench and water pollution, while smoke emerging from dryer stacks causes odor pollution problems.

“The factory releases stinking smoke from burning coals in the production, and that seriously troubles the villagers,” Sinakhone Khottaphome said.  “If the factory is still here, villagers cannot live.”

Illegally built and poorly operated

Problems with the Lao spent beer grain facility go beyond the just the process, as regulators in the country found the factory was built illegally and is operated without the proper environmental and business licenses.

On Oct. 5, the Ministry of Natural Resources department of pollution control issued a notice confirming that the factory is located in the wrong place because it is too close to the nearby community.

The factory’s owners have also ignored repeated orders to clean up their act.

On July 29, the Vientiane Administration Office ordered the factory to stop operations, and on September 9, Vientiane’s Industrial and Commerce Department also ordered the factory to cease operations. The Saysettha governor’s office also issued a stop order on Sept. 30.

All were ignored by the factory’s owners.

While the more than 300 families affected by the factory hope the latest stop order is more effective, Sinakhone Khottaphome said a truck delivered more spent beer malt to the factory on Oct. 12 but had yet to process it.

“During this time, the factory stopped production after Mr. Chaleun Yiapaoher came to order the shut-down on Oct. 11, but the villagers are now keeping a close eye on it,” he said. “Yesterday [Oct. 12] villagers saw a truck transporting the leftover malt to the factory, but production did not start up, yet.”

Beer grain glut

Regulation of spent beer grains is controversial worldwide. Breweries in the U.S. and the U.K., where environmental regulations are more robust, have been fined or installed controls to maintain air quality. World brewer’s grain production worldwide is thought to be in the range of 35-40 million tons.

In one California case, the craft brewery Firestone Walker Brewing Co. installed $1 million worth of pollution controls, even though the California Air Resources Board (CARB) found the air quality acceptable, according to The Tribunein San Louis Obispo, Calif.

While the CARB may have deemed pollution levels there to be acceptable, it also found that the pollution can still cause health effects that include headache, nausea and irritability. At higher concentrations, gas from the process is considered an “irritant,” producing symptoms such as eye irritation, cough and sore throat.

The amount of spent brewers grain varies with the size of the brewery, but it is unlikely that the Firestone Walker Brewing Co. produced anywhere near the amount of spent grain that is processed by the Doung village factory.

Source: RFA

Analyst: Thai King Death Affects Regional Casino Business

The death, announced on Thursday, of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej (pictured) creates “near- and long-term” considerations in relation to the regional casino gaming industry, said a note on Friday from Union Gaming Securities Asia Ltd.

The King, aged 88, died at Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, after a 70-year reign.

A number of casino industry commentators have previously suggested that the end of the king’s reign might mark a rethink of that country’s policy of barring casino gaming.

Casinos in parts of Cambodia and Laos bordering Thailand receive many of their patrons from the latter country. The only casino in neighbouring Malaysia also receives Thai customers; as do the two casino resorts in the nearby city-state of Singapore; the only casino resort in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh; and casinos in Vietnam.

Referring to the national mourning for the Thai monarch, Union Gaming analyst Grant Govertsen stated: “Over the near-term, we expect at least a month-long period of very soft Thai-originated gaming volumes at several border casinos run by publicly traded operators. Over the long term, a newly-elected government under the new monarch, or perhaps a strengthened military government, could green light the holy grail of gaming expansion in Southeast Asia.”

Legalisation of casino gambling in Thailand could bring annual tax revenues of more than THB100 billion (US$2.8 billion), suggested a study released in February from Rangsit University in Greater Bangkok.

It is likely that domestic demand for casino gaming would be strong, a number of studies have indicated.

Rangsit University’s paper estimated such facilities would also be popular with foreigners, helping to drive up the number of overseas visitors to the country by 40 percent to 50 percent.

In 2015, Thailand received nearly 29.9 million foreign tourists according to data from the Royal Thai Police, collated by the Department of Tourism. Nearly 19.9 million arrivals – or around 67 percent – were from East Asia, including 7.9 million from mainland China.

In June 2015, a minority group on Thailand’s National Reform Council (NRC) suggested legalising casino gaming in the country, according to local media reports at the time. The NRC minority group suggested that Pattaya, a beach destination popular with foreign holidaymakers that is 147 kilometres (91.3 miles) southeast of the capital Bangkok, was a logical location for any casino resort.

In July 2015, Thai media had reported that Marina Bay Sands Pte Ltd, developer and operator of Marina Bay Sands casino resort in Singapore – and part of the Las Vegas Sands Corp group – was interested in operating a casino and convention complex in Thailand.

Commenting on the short-term impact on the casino industry in neighbouring countries as a result of the Thai King’s death, Union Gaming noted on Friday: “There are four publicly traded companies that have exposure to casinos that border Thailand and derive a majority of revenues from Thai patrons.”

It identified them as: Donaco International Ltd, which reported its maiden dividend in August and runs a casino in Poipet, Cambodia; Entertainment Gaming Asia Inc, which operates a slot parlour in Poipet; Macau Legend Development Ltd, which on September 1 completed the acquisition of the Savan Vegas casino in Savannakhet, Laos; and Silver Heritage Ltd, which recently switched from operating slots at a parlour Vientiane, Laos on a revenue share basis, to leasing them to a third party.

It added: “It is during this first 30-day period of deep mourning [for the King] that we would expect many Thai patrons to avoid going to border casinos.”

In Friday’s note, the brokerage additionally said that Thailand “represents what in all likelihood would be the most interesting gaming expansion opportunity in Southeast Asia – much more so than Vietnam”.

“This is a function of not only Thailand’s economy but [also] its advanced tourism infrastructure and given that it is a preferred global tourism destination,” wrote Mr Govertsen.

Source: GGR Asia

Vientiane Water Supply Pours 800 bln kip for Development of Water System

Detail photograph of large blue water pipes.

The Vientiane Water Supply State Enterprise injected more than 800 billion kip (about US$100 million) for the expansion and improvement of the water supply system in Vientiane Capital.

Boun Awk Phansa, Lai Hua Fai Festival in Vientiane

The Lao PDR has a unique tradition related to its faith. The beautiful festival, Awk Phansa Lai Hua Fai, is held on the day of the full moon of the 11th lunar month.

Samsung Funds World Renew Laos Development Projects

Sumsung on Thursday presented US$17,000 as a financial support to World Renew Laos to fund its integrated development initiatives in northern Laos.

New Deputy Minister of Education and Sports Appointed

The President of Souphanouvong University, Luang Prabang Province, Assoc. Prof. Dr Khamphay Sisavanh has been promoted to be the new Deputy Minister of Education and Sports.