Bangkok - The Lao government has denied rumours that a huge property development project on the outskirts of Vientiane will become a sprawling Chinatown, home to 50,000 Chinese families, government sources said Tuesday.
Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad held a press conference Monday in the capital to deny persistent reports that the That Luang property project, on the eastern outskirts of the capital, was being developed to accommodate an massive influx of Chinese immigrants into the landlocked communist country.
"There have been a lot of false rumours about this project," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy. "They are calling it a Chinatown. It is not a Chinatown," Yong said in a telephone interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Somsavat, a former foreign minister and one of the few Lao leaders who can speak Mandarin, called the press conference to clarify the status of That Luang marsh development project which is being jointly developed by a Lao company and its Chinese partner.
"The partnership will develop the marsh and hand it over to the Lao government when the joint venture agreement comes to an end," Somsavat was quoted in the Vientiane Times.
He explained that the joint venture had been granted a concession to develop a "new township and industrial zone" in the Vientiane suburb as a means of repaying the Chinese government for financing the construction of a new sports stadium for Vientiane to host the South-East Asia Games next year.
The concession allows the joint venture to sell residential and industrial units to both Lao nationals and foreigners, including Chinese citizens.
The contract lasts for 50 years, after which it may be extended, said Somsavat. The township-cum-industrial estate will reportedly cover 1,600 hectares, 600 hectares of which will be turned into a water park.
"The labour will be recruited here, in Laos, and if necessary the company will hire some technicians from China," said Yong, who also denied rumours that many of the thousands of Chinese labourers brought in to build the sports stadium had remained in Laos.
Laos, half the size of France, has a population of less than 6 million people. It is surrounded by bigger, more populous neighbours including China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar.
Laos had close ties with the Soviet bloc, especially Vietnam, between 1975 to 1988, but had gradually improved its relations with China after the collapse of the Soviet Union and termination of aid from the former communist superpower.
