beijing laos a nation of 7 million people wedged between china vietnam and thailand is opening a 59 billion chinesebuilt railway that links chinas own poor southwest to foreign markets but piles on potentially risky debt the line through lush tropical mountains from the laotian capital vientiane to kunming is one of hundreds of projects under beijings belt and road initiative to expand trade by building ports railways and other facilities across asia africa and the pacific the 1035kilometer 642mile line opens this week to cargo but no regular passengers due to antipandemic travel curbs poor countries welcome chinas initiative but the projects are financed by loans from chinese stateowned banks that must be repaid some borrowers complain chinesebuilt projects are too expensive and leave too much debt the kunmingvientiane railway is a link in a possible future network to connect china with thailand vietnam myanmar malaysia and singapore that would give southern china more access to ports and export markets laotian leaders hopes the railway will energize their isolated economy by linking it to china and markets as far away as europe but foreign experts say the potential benefits to laos beyond serving as a channel for chinese trade are unclear and the cost appears dangerously high the railway will generate very positive economic returns for china and possibly other countries but it is harder to see exactly what the economic benefits are going to be for laos said scott morris of the center for global development in washington with only 21 stations in laos the line is designed to serve chinese needs to reach foreign ports quickly morris said he said a railway to serve mostly rural laos would have more stations to connect farmers to markets this is essentially a chinese public infrastructure project that happens to exist in another country he said chinese contractors are building a highspeed rail line from the thai capital bangkok to northeastern town of nong khai on the lao border that wont be completed until 2028 and leaves a gap to be filled between the border and the line to china the kunmingvientiane railways 418kilometer 260mile segment in laos will be operated by the laoschina railway co a joint venture between china railway group and two other chinese governmentowned companies with a 70 stake and a laotian state company with 30 borrowed money makes up 60 of the railways investment according to the two governments such a debt load is unusually heavy and repayment risk should be quite high said laura li of sp global ratings a specialist in infrastructure financing laos might be forced to take over repaying the joint ventures full 35 billion debt to keep the line running if the company defaults and the chinese partners choose not to put in more money said ammar a malik and bradley parks in a report for aiddata a research project at virginias college of william mary that is the equivalent of nearly a fifth of laoss economic output last