Day: September 6, 2022

In order to continue to enhance the existing friendly relations and increase good cooperation in various fields between the Lao PDR and Mongolia, Mr. Saleumxay Kommasith, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Lao PDR and his delegation made an official visit to Mongolia between September 2-5, 2022, in response to the invitation of Ms Mrs Battsetg Batmunkh.

The bilateral meeting was held in Mongolia on Sept 4 where the two sides highly valued the traditional relations and good cooperation between the Lao PDR and Mongolia throughout the past 60 years.

They discussed and reviewed the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding of the 11th meeting of the Joint Committee on Laos-Mongolia and Mongolia-Laos Bilateral Cooperation was in 2018.

The two sides unanimously agreed to enhance the bilateral cooperation and the exchange of visits by high-ranking delegations and other level of officials.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Lao-Mongolian diplomatic relations as very important year, (September 12, 1962 – September 12, 2022) which the two sides have pledged to jointly mark through various activities.

Ministry of Education and Sports of the Lao PDR and the Ministry of Education and Science of Mongolia signed an agreement on education and exchange cooperation for the year 2022-2027.

On this same occasion, Mr. Saleumxay representing the Government of Lao PDR awarded the Friendship Medal to the Government of Mongolia via Minister Battsetg in recognition of Mongolia’s donation of 1,050 sheep to Lao PDR in 2018.

In the afternoon of the same day, Deputy Prime Minister Saleumxay and his delegation paid a courtesy visit to President of Mongolia Mr. Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh and Mr. Zandanshatar Gombojav, Chairman of the State Great Khural (Parliament) of Mongolia.

Source: Lao News Agency

It has been more than two weeks already since I and other country mates first tried cycling in mega Beijing, China, after realizing that other media fellows from different countries had been addicted to this sustainable mode of transport.

Passion for cycling tends to beat heavily in our hearts whenever we are free. It doesn’t matter whether it is in the morning or late afternoon. Whenever we are free we go cycling.

Our path to showing people how great our love for cycling is hasn’t been laid out easily. At first we had no idea how to rend a bike, and I even bought two monthly bike cards within two days. Now we can know which one of colourful bikes parked in rows in front of our condominium can be ridden and how many minutes we need to cycle to reach our destination.

If you visit China for study, work, doing business, holiday, or other reasons else and you never have time to cycle, you miss a chance to make your time here livable because cycling is popular among Chinese people. It gives you a convenient, affordable and environment friendly means of transport.

Along roads there tend to be people cycling to school, office, for leisure purposes, or exercise on both sides of the road which usually have rows of trees, the generous givers of shade and fresh air. Cycling in a public park with beautiful scenery and river can give you more enjoyable time.

Renting a bike takes simple steps. We can use mobile app to look for nearby bikes or just walk for a couple of minutes and you will see different kinds of bikes parked in rows, individually or in groups. After cycling is over, the bike can be parked anywhere. This makes access to bicycles an easy thing.

Bike sharing service is provided by either public sector or private companies. Most people prefer the service of private businesses as their access tends to be more convenient. Bike sharing service providers have developed mobile apps that can be used to rent a bike. The rental is affordable, mostly at 1.5 yuan for one hour (1 yuan = 1,234 kip). In some regions like Beijing the price is 0.5-1 yuan for every 15 minutes of biking. Some bike sharing companies provide via Alipay payment platform more affordable options like 4.9 yuan for five days of cycling, 5-8.1 yuan for seven days, 16.8 yuan for one month, or 48.6 yuan for three months without capping a particular time of cycling spent on a single day. So what you need to have everything done for your cycling is just a smart phone with one of digital accounts such as Alipay or WeChat Pay.

Each bicycle has QR codes, mostly located in the middle of handlebar and at the back, right under the saddle. These codes are for scanning to unlock the bike. Charge begins when the bike is unlocked and ends when locked.

After having fallen in love in cycling for some time, Bountieng Chanthavong, Deputy Editor of News and Feature Division, Lao National Radio revealed, “Cycling in Beijing is very comfortable, but what we need to pay attention to is traffic rules because China has very strict rules. Whenever we need to cross the road we must use zebra crossings and respect traffic lights. Cycling is also good for your health as it is another form of exercise, and you can also enjoy seeing beautiful scenery and beautiful things along road sides.”

“I think the bike sharing scheme in China is a great idea and it’s been executed brilliantly in reality. It’s super convenient and necessary for users. I believe this is one of the most important reasons why Beijing has no air pollution now,” said Quoc Chen Anh, a Vietnamese journalist who used to spend years in China for his undergraduate degree in mandarin.

“At first, when I came to Beijing, I was worried I can’t cycle because of pollution and traffic. But, it turns out there’s no pollution and it’s safe, convenient and comfortable to cycle in Beijing because they have a special line for bicycles and they have a bike-sharing service using Alipay platform. All we need to do is activate bike service in Alipay and pay it from our Alipay balance and the price is cheap,” said Luki Aulia, a senior journalist of Kompas Daily Newspaper, Indonesia.

Cycling has been intertwined with the lifestyle of Chinese people for a long time. China has around 500 million bicycles. Yet the number is still lower than 670 million recorded in the 1970s.

Encouraging people to use bicycles is another achievement in China’s efforts in improving environment. The development of basic infrastructure – bicycle lanes, and mobile applications has resulted in a rapid growth of bike sharing businesses over the past five years.

Besides to China, the bike sharing model has been expanded to foreign countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, England and the United States. However, bike sharing service in the two ASEAN countries hasn’t been successful like that in China and this is mostly attributed to limited infrastructure, strict government policies and fierce competition in the host countries.

Many people may recall watching a news video on television in the 1990s showing Chinese people holding their bike handlebars at an intersection while waiting for a green light. The video reflected economic difficulty China was struggling to address. China then was called Kingdom of Bicycles. Today, cycling represents the civilization and wellbeing of Chinese people.

As for the Lao PDR, especially Vientiane, it would be great if bicycle use is promoted with concrete measures as our transport sector mainly depends on imported fossil fuel. Though we can produce electricity, vehicles powered by this kind of clean energy remain expensive.

We need to attach greater attention to addressing constraints in order to promote the use of bicycles including basic infrastructure, roads in particular, and security facilities as well as policies conducive to promoting bicycle use. If cooperation is extended from all of us for the promotion, a success will be within our reach.

Source: Lao News Agency

Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has said he believes that the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation will further thrive and reach new heights toward development and prosperity for the sake of the two countries’ people, as well as for peace, stability, collaboration and development regionally and internationally.

Talking to the press on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the nations’ diplomatic relations (September 5, 1962 – 2022), he said with their time-tested relationship, Vietnam and Laos have many advantages and great potential to increase the scale of cooperation. It requires both sides to have high determination and strong efforts, the President added.

He suggested the countries keep consolidating their political relations pillar, and endeavour to turn economic collaboration a new pillar that is on par with their special ties via breakthrough measures to promote internal strength and expand international cooperation.

Based on their political trust, the nations should further consolidate their joint works in defence-security to maintain a peaceful environment and political stability, firmly protect their independence and sovereignty, and promptly prevent all plots of hostile forces, he noted.

Vietnamese President Phuc also highlighted a need for the sides to consider cooperation in education-training and human resources development a strategic one and to team up in promoting communications on their special relations and comprehensive collaboration.

Reviewing the Vietnam-Laos relationship, Vietnamese President Phuc said the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation have developed firmly, intensively, extensively and practically over the past six decades despite regional and global uncertainties.

The two sides have maintained the exchange of high-ranking delegations and meetings in all channels, utilised bilateral cooperation mechanisms of agencies and localities, and closely coordinated and supported each other at multilateral forums, he continued.

Cooperation in national defence and security has been strengthened and remained an important pillar of the special relationship, the State leader said.

Regarding economic ties, President Phuc said two-way trade in the first eight months of this year exceeded 1 billion USD, up more than 20% year-on-year.

The Vietnamese President also highlighted mutual support during the COVID-19 fight in terms of finance, medical equipment and personnel.

He stressed that the building of the Lao National Assembly, a gift of the Vietnamese Party, State and people to their Lao counterparts which has been handed over and inaugurated last year, has become a symbol of the special relationship in the new period.

Other cooperation projects reflecting the Vietnam-Laos friendship include Star Telecom (Unitel), a joint venture between Viettel Global and Lao Asia Telecom in Laos which has met 57% of the local demand, he said.

Source: Lao News Agency