On December 3, the China-Laos railway was fully put into operation. This railway is a symbol of good wishes for the nations of China and Laos to bring into being interconnection and jointly construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The Lanxi-based company Hongshi founded a subsidiary in Laos, the Vientiane Hongshi, which is a primary cement supplier for the railway project, providing more than 600,000 tons of high-quality cement for railway construction.

Vientiane Hongshi is a key construction project for Hongshi Group as part of its participation in the BRI. On February 8, 2018, Vientiane Hongshi was officially opened, reaching an annual output of 2 million tons of high-grade cement, providing high-quality cement for local large-scale infrastructure construction projects, and driving the development of local employment, logistics, and other related industries.

The China-Laos Railway construction took five years and underwent unprecedented challenges, such as the outbreak of the pandemic at the beginning of 2020 which caused a temporary suspension of the work.

Eventually, the project was completed and the railway was fully put into operation. As key and symbolic project for both the BRI and the Sino-Laotian friendship, the China-Laos Railway brings about significant growth opportunities for Laos and has created a major economical point of growth for the Hongshi Group. “Now, it only takes three hours to reach the Chinese border from Vientiane, and the whole ride to Kunming only takes from morning to the evening. This provides companies with a more convenient and efficient logistic channel, which can effectively reduce production and operation costs and fully release corporate production capacity,” said Fu Zhexin, general manager of Vientiane Hongshi. In the future, Vientiane Hongshi will make full use of the China-Laos railway to focus on the work of the dual circulation and continue to contribute to the BRI.

In recent years, the group has actively responded to national initiatives by investing in the construction of eight large-scale cement projects, including those in Laos, Nepal, Indonesia, and Myanmar, among others, participating in the BRI, and establishing a good image of Chinese companies overseas. (By Yang Yizhi, translated by Marco Lovisetto, edited by Mariam Ayad)