The Government of Laos announced in early May that it had temporarily suspended work on the 1285 MW Xayaburi project on the Lower Mekong in the north of the country, at the request of Vietnam, pending an independent expert review and a further environmental impact assessment. The announcement came following a meeting between the Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Tham-mavong and his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung, during the 18th ASEAN Summit. The Government said that it would hire independent consultants to review the EIA prior to making a definitive decision on the project. The Lao Government has voiced "deep concern" about the EIA, and the risk to its fishing and farming industries. It called for hydropower projects on the mainstream of the Mekong to be deferred for at least a decade.
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