Laotian and Thai authorities are mulling over a feasibility plan to construct an expressway running from Laos’ Savannakhet Province to Lao Bao Border Gate of Vietnam, according to Laotian media.

Savannakhet deputy governor Senesak Soulysak has recently proposed the highway construction plan to former Thai Minister of Energy and Mines Sonthirat Sonthijirawong, along with other Thai officials, Laotian Times reported on Wednesday.

Currently, Thailand is the second-largest foreign investor in Savannakhet, after China.

According to the plan, a 160km thruway will start in Kaysone Phomvihane, the capital city of Savannakhet, and end at Lao Bao Border Gate in Quang Tri Province, central Vietnam.

Along with the expressway, some five-star hotels and golf courses, as well as international transport services, will be included in the freeway project, the deputy governor said.

He emphasized that the project will help further beef up the development of Savannakhet, which has already attracted increasing foreign investment in the field of renewable energy.

Furthermore, the Savannakhet government believes that the highway will promote economic and trade relations between Laos and other regional countries as it is located on the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC), which covers Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam.

The EWEC is an economic development program initiated at the eighth Greater Mekong Subregion Ministerial Conference in 1998 to facilitate the economic development and integration of the EWEC countries, according to Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Along with Cambodia, these EWEC nations form the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia, the third-largest peninsula in the world.

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