The China-owned Lao-Vang Vieng New Zone Development Group “is now proposing the project to the government,” an official of the Planning and Investment Department of Vientiane province’s Vang Vieng district told RFA’s Lao Service in a recent interview.
Environmentalists and area residents have long voiced concern that the project could potentially ruin the natural beauty of the popular tourist destination with its mountains, lagoons, and rivers, and destroy the livelihoods and homes of villagers nearby. Others fear that the project will further strengthen China’s influence and economic reach into the developing Southeast Asian nation, which has become a target for massive foreign investment from its powerful northern neighbor under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s massive Belt and Road Initiative of infrastructure to support trade with China.
