According to Pasaxon, the newspaper of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, the Laotian Minister of Planning and Investment Sonexay Siphandone on August 11 during a meeting of 10th Laos-China Railway Project Construction Committee, said that as of July 25, construction of the railway, which runs from the town of Boten on Laos’s border with China to the capital Vientiane, was 93.82 per cent complete. He said, “The Laos-China Railway will be completed in November, and will be open and ready for use by Laos National Day on 2 December”. Sonexay also told the meeting that Chinese operators are bringing in locomotives, electric multiple unit trains, and other equipment to conduct the first trial run of the railway in October, before opening it to the public on December 2. The Vientiane Times noted “The Laos-China railway is a strategic part of China’s [BRI] and the Lao government’s plan to transform Laos from a landlocked country into a land link within the region.”