Xinhua reports that China has signed seven additional agreements with Laos, its increasingly significant economic partner:
China and Laos inked seven agreements Sunday opening the way for more cooperation on trade, investment and infrastructure construction.
The deals consisted of trade and aid, which will help Laos on its road construction, power generation and e-government.
The China Export and Import Bank also offered $100 million in export buyer’s credit for projects concerning the purchase of helicopters and vehicles.
Premier Wen Jiabao and his Laotian counterpart Bouasone Bouphavanh witnessed the signing ceremony after an hour-long meeting.
China and Laos signed similar agreements in August 2007 and the New York Times examined their initial effects on rural Laos.
Update: AFP reports that the Laotian’s water and fuel resources have motivated China’s relationship with the impoverished nation, while China’s growing exploitation of these resources is beginning to cause worrisome environmental changes.
When six Mekong country premiers meet in Laos from Sunday, China will be the elephant in the room, having lavished highways and sports stadiums on its neighbours and expanded its search for resources.
China would use the summit to “put forward a new cooperation initiative that will include railway, power, information superhighway and other infrastructure development projects” and facilitate environmental protection, he said.
“This is an initiative for mutual benefit and win-win progress.”
Not everyone is convinced, especially when it comes to the Mekong, Southeast Asia’s largest river, which is shared by the region’s unequal members.
China is the only Mekong country to have dammed its mainstream, and it is planning several more hydropower projects on the Chinese and lower Mekong that have alarmed environmentalists worried about its ecology and fish stocks.
In 2004 Chinese engineers finished blasting rapids and dredging the river in the Golden Triangle area for cargo traffic, turning the sleepy Thai river port of Chiang Saen into a bustling trade hub with a Chinese casino.
