China and its southeast Asian neighbors have strengthened cooperation since the creation of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism in 2015. Late last year, the China-Laos Railway kicked off and people from Laos are still being trained in southwest China to run it. This is a class on railway technology at a vocational college in the city of Kunming. All of the 32 students are from neighboring Laos. The China-Laos Railway opened in December. It links Kunming with Lao's capital Vientiane.  Laos now needs more specialists in this field.