China Leveraging Laos To Link Up Its Southeast Asian Economic Interests
October 28th, 2024
Via South China Morning Post, a report on China’s growing interest in Laos: China aims to scale up infrastructure construction in uniquely strategic Laos to accelerate trade and investment throughout Southeast Asia as Chinese businesses scout for space to grow offshore, analysts said. Premier Li Qiang said during a four-day visit to the Southeast Asian nation […]
Read more »Laos Durian Dreams Grow As Plantations Rise To Feed China
October 20th, 2024
Via Nikkei Asia, a report on how a new Chinese funded high-speed railways is fueling investment in the ‘king of fruits’ amid worries over forest loss: Chinese businessman Tao Jian spends an entire day navigating muddy roads on the Bolaven Plateau in southern Laos, inspecting his budding durian empire of 50,000 trees. The area is nicknamed […]
Read more »New Railways Could Transform Southeast Asia
October 11th, 2024
Via The Economist, a look at new railways that could transform South-East Asia: Few better ways exist to see Vietnam than to travel on its north-south railway. It was originally built by French colonialists, and its trains pass rice paddies, verdant mountains and spectacular coastlines as they go from Hanoi, the capital, to Ho Chi Minh […]
Read more »Laos Projects Taps Water Resources To Roast Coffee With Green Hydrogen
October 7th, 2024
Via Nikkei Asia, a report on an innovative project to roast coffee coffee with green hydrogen in Laos: A business venture to roast coffee using clean hydrogen is underway in Laos, where abundant water resource can generate hydroelectricity at low costs. TSB Greenex, the Tokyo-based environmental concern, has joined eight other firms to launch the […]
Read more »The Laotian Las Vegas
September 28th, 2024
Via Airmail, commentary on one reporter’s weekend in the Laotian Las Vegas, where an opulent casino lies at the heart of a vast human-, drug-, and wildlife-trafficking operation: In July, two friends and I arrived at an immigration checkpoint in the Thai port of Chiang Saen, duffel bags in tow. We were going to the […]
Read more »Laos Special Economic Zone Was Supposed to Be an Economic Hub. It Became a Criminal’s Paradise
August 22nd, 2024
Via Bloomberg, a podcast on how the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos became a notorious hub for drugs, scammers and human traffickers: Oanh Ha: On the banks of the Mekong River in Laos — there’s a startling sight — after traveling through small plantations of coffee and bananas — a winding road descends […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.