Officials from Laos’ Ministry of Post and Telecommunications led by the minister, Dr Thansamay Kommasith, last week met a delegation from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China led by its minister Mr Miao Wei at the 19th Asean Telecommunication and Information Technology Ministers Meeting in Vientiane to agree on ICT cooperation.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Dr Thansamay and Mr Miao Wei.

Further cooperation in this field will help drive China’s “Belt and Road” Initiative and digital development for better regional connectivity. It will also strengthen the relationship and comprehensive strategic partnership between Laos and China in line with the four “good” principles agreed on by the two governments.  

The two sides agreed to cooperate in the use of high-speed information systems towards the goal of poverty reduction and economic growth through the “Digital Silk Road” and plan to upgrade digital systems in Laos.

On this occasion, four leading telecoms companies from Laos and China also teamed up to cooperate in the development of telecommunications.

These companies are Enterprise of Telecommunications Lao (ETL), Southeast Asia Tower (SAT), China Mobile International (CMI) and China Unicom Global (CUG).

An agreement was signed by ETL’s CEO, Mr Huang Shuyun, SAT General Manager, Ms Liu Bo, CMI General Manager, Mr Wang Meng, and CUG Executive Vice President, Mr Qiu Tao.

ETL and SAT agreed to cooperate in the maintenance and use of telecoms infrastructure in Laos.

ETL and CMI agreed to cooperate on overseas telecommunications for a win-win situation, especially in international roaming, transmission line system connectivity between Laos and China, and high-speed transmission lines between the Laos-China border to neighbouring countries and beyond.

ETL and CMI also agreed to cooperate on ICT service development and provide 4.0 innovation services such as Start Up, IoT, AI, Big Data, Smart City, and service integration in fixed broadband, mobile broadband, 4.5G and 5G networks through ETL, with these services becoming available now and in the future.

SAT and CMI agreed to negotiate on the use of optic fibre along the Laos-China railway route provided by SAT to link telecoms services in China, Laos and Thailand.

SAT and CUG agreed to negotiate on the renting of fibre optic cable along the Laos-China railway and Laos-China expressway routes from SAT to link telecoms services in China, Laos and Thailand.

The partnership of these leading telecoms operators is aimed at upgrading telecommunication systems and telecommunications infrastructure in Laos to international standards. This is part of the government’s policy to convert Laos from being landlocked to a land link within the region.