Feature: China's rubber tapping know-how helps lead Lao villagers to happier lives

At a ground in the middle of a 7,500-acre secondary forest surrounded by an old-growth forest in the northern Lao province of Luang Namtha close to the Chinese border, dozens of local rubber tappers listened carefully to Chinese experts who were giving training courses on rubber plantation.

"This workshop helped solve many of our problems in rubber tapping, improve tapping technology and efficiency and I hope that there will be more training courses like this in the future," Mithong, a Lao rubber tapper, told Xinhua.

Representatives from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences on Wednesday joined the China-Laos training course on natural rubber plantation.

The course was organized by Yunnan Rubber Investment Company, under China's Yunnan State Farms Group Co., Ltd., at Luang Namtha's Sobtuth poppy replacement demonstration plantation zone, located some 360 km northwest of Lao capital Vientiane.

Entering the market here in 2005, Yunnan Rubber Investment Company has engaged in the rubber business, including opening roads, planting rubber trees and conserving rubber forests.

The area of rubber plantations has gradually expanded. Together with itself development, the company also helps open a new door for local residents to step into a happier life thanks to rubber.

During the course on Wednesday, Professor Luo Shiqiao and other experts from the Chinese academy showed local tappers how to sharpen tapping knives, how to conduct tapping practices and provided pertinent information on the overall tapping process.

According to Chen Cuiying, General Manager of Yunnan Rubber Investment Company, the training course aimed to improve the rubber tapping skills of local workers.

Since entering Laos, the company has actively organized training activities for local workers. So far in 2016, the company has trained more than 600 Lao rubber tappers, she told Xinhua.

In 2015, Yunnan State Farms Group Co., Ltd and the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry signed a Memorandum of Understanding on developing the natural rubber industry, as well as cooperation in inspection and quarantine of agricultural products.

The company has also so far made full use of strategic opportunities from the Chinese-proposed Belt and Road initiative, to strengthen cooperation with Laos and other Southeast Asian nations in rubber and other agricultural areas.

The company is now focusing on the construction of the Lao natural rubber testing center, natural rubber technical standard demonstration center, and training center, Chen said.

Construction for the three centers is currently underway and they are expected to be completed and put into operation in late 2017.

"This will significantly change the decades-old model of Lao rubber production, play a big role in promoting the technological innovation of Lao rubber companies and help boost the income of local rubber farmers," she said.

Despite being located in the middle of a forest, Luang Namtha's Sobtuth plantation zone has everything from water, electricity, roads, standard primary school, and a drug rehabilitation center.

In more than 10 years, Yunnan Rubber Investment Company has invested some five million Chinese yuan (726,000 U.S. dollars) to build 119 kilometers of road, four bridges, add 11.5 kilometers of electric wire, five water reservoirs, and eight transformers in Laos.

The company also spent 400,000 Chinese yuan to build two primary schools in Luang Namtha and Sayabouly provinces, donated more than 400,000 Chinese yuan and participated in various activities to contribute to promoting the socio-economic development of northern Laos.

Yang Xi, an employee of the company, told Xinhua that "villagers in the area are all willing to come here to work. Their income here is good, and their children can enjoy a good education. This year, 13 children have graduated from primary school and entered secondary school."

"The lao government even sent a whole village of relatively poor status in northern Huaphan province, 15-hours away, to work here and earn decent wages," said Yang.

On two sides along the new roads built by Yunnan Rubber Investment Company, from Sobtuth plantation zone to deep in the mountains, there are old-growth forests or slash-and-burn cultivation areas, simple thatched huts, and some local villagers who physically appeared to be weak due to drug use.

There remains a long way ahead for the project, but many local villagers are now able to reap the early fruits of their labor from working on the Sobtuth poppy replacement plantation project under the cooperation of China and Laos.

The new roads will also help lead local villagers in northern Laos to a new and happier life. Endit