China aims to expand infrastructure construction in strategically unique Laos to boost trade and investment in Southeast Asia as Chinese businesses seek space to expand offshore, analysts said.

Laos, relatively undeveloped and small with just 7.4 million people, matters to Beijing because it shares borders not only with China but also with the larger Southeast Asian economies of Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

“Laos is seen as a shipping hub for China to export Chinese products to other countries in the sub-region and to import products from those countries to China,” said Supitcha Punya, assistant professor of political science and public administration at Chiang Mai University from Thailand. .

The additions would boost China’s economic expansion into Southeast Asia for its own western landlocked regions, said Naubahar Sharif, head of public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.