Thailand to link high speed train with Laos

BANGKOK, April 3 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra says Thailand will go ahead with a cross-border project on the development of a new high speed train system linking with that of neighbouring Laos. Yingluck announced the policy during her talks at Bangkok's Government House on Wednesday afternoon with Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Thongluan Sisulit, who is visiting Thailand to attend the 18th Thai-Lao Joint Commission Meeting and took the opportunity to pay a courtesy call on the Thai prime minister. During the talks, the visiting Lao deputy premier proposed that Thailand move forward a plan to construct a new high speed rail system to connect with that of China through Laos, as part of spanning regional transport networks in the future. In response, Premier Yingluck affirmed that Thailand will go ahead with the project, linking Nong Khai Province in the Thai Northeast with Vientiane, Laos' capital, as the Thai government would like to see trilateral cooperation between Thailand, Laos and China, including that on the development of cross-border infrastructure projects, covering the proposed high speed rail system. The Thai prime minister, meanwhile, informed the visiting Lao deputy premier that she plans to lead a group of Thai investors from both the private and public sectors for a study tour in Laos, during which they will also meet their counterparts in Laos to form their business cooperation, while the Lao deputy premier assessed that the expanding Thai-Lao investment cooperation framework should become clearer during the 2nd Thai-Lao Joint Cabinet Retreat (JCR), scheduled to be held in Thailand's northern resort Chiang Mai Province on May 19, 2013. (TNA)