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A student intern works on the construction site of the China-Laos Railway in Laos.

When the China-Laos Railway is complete by the end of this year, people will be able to travel from Shanghai to Vientiane, the Laos capital, in a day.

At Shanghai Institute of Technology, a center for people-to-people exchanges between China and the Mekong region countries, to which Laos belongs, was established on Thursday.

The Belt and Road Lancang-Mekong Railway Connectivity Center was initiated by the institute, which has a rich history of participation in the construction of the railway and education exchanges with Laos.

From 2018, 25 students from Souphanouvong University, Laos, have studied engineering at the Shanghai institute to become railway experts serving their country.

This year, 12 of them will qualify as railway engineers, and eight of them are currently working as interns on the railway.

The center was co-founded by the Shanghai People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Souphanouvong University, China Railway Academy Co and China Railway 24th Bureau Group Shanghai Railway Co.

Its first key project will be a video project to promote the railway and cooperation between China and Laos, with both Chinese and Lao students at the institute taking part.

The China-Laos Railway, extending about 420 kilometers, will connect to the railway system in China at its north and to Thailand in the south. It will become a part of the railway from Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, to Singapore.