Overview 

Panghok International Checkpoint is located in Laos’ Eastern side of Mai district in Phongsaly province. The checkpoint is about 23 km away from Mai district, the nearest large town and 206 km from Boun Neua district, a capital city of Phongsaly with a population of 197,989 persons. It is opposite to Tay Trang Border Crossing Station (known as Sop Hun in Vietnamese side), Dien Bien district, Dien Bien province, Vietnam. The checkpoints have permanent offices at both sides of the borders where immigration offices are located about 5 km apart.  

Major inbound commodities are construction materials such as stone, cement and steel for 

China’s hydropower and road construction projects inside Laos. Since early 2019, there are newly imported agricultural commodities, namely durians and sweet potatoes from southern provinces of Vietnam that are transited via the checkpoint to China.  

Daily Capacity 

In 2018, there were approximately 63 vehicles crossing the checkpoint daily that was equivalent to 22,850 vehicles entered and exited the checkpoint yearly, with 126,986 tons of inbound and outbound goods. In 2019, the inbound goods increased to 257, 557 tons or about 700 tons per day.  

Customs Clearance 

The Ministry of Finance’s Customs Division, a regulatory authority for imports, requires tax exemption certificate (in case of humanitarian goods) including supporting documents that typically are an Analysis Certificate, Phytosanitary Certificate, Fumigation certificate, certificates of origin, invoices and packing list (if any). 

Charges per time for importing truck include:   

Remark: charges (round up) in USD are based on BCEL exchange rate USD 1 = 20.752 kip as of 16 October 2023. 

Payment channels and methods: Importers and exporters can pay the service fee electronically at service units of the Bank Pour Le Commerce Exterieur Lao (BCEL) and the Lao Development Bank (LDB) which includes BCEL i-Banking, BCEL One, LDB Corporate Banking by cash, money transfer, and cheque. 

For more information on customs in Laos, please see the following link: 1.3 Customs Information.   

Other Relevant Information 

Under Ministry of Finance, Laos’ Customs Clearance for Imports (ASYCUDA) is implementing smart customs project that the digitalization of imports and exports at international border crossing is being modernized. The ministry adopts the Lao National Single Window (LNSW) and integrates it into the ASYCUDA that became known as the NSWA+.  

However, Pang Hok International Checkpoint has not yet been integrated into the project. In other words, the customs clearance is still a paper-based system.  

Documents that are typically required for the customs clearance for non-foods and food items are: 

Tax exemption document from relevant partner government ministry, Commercial Invoice, Bill of Lading or Air Waybill, Packing List, Certificate of Origin, Analysis Certificate, Phytosanitary Certificate, Fumigation Certificate, Import Permit for Food (issued by Laos’ Food and Drug Department, Ministry of Public Health)  

For more information on government contact details, please see the following link: 4.1 Government Contact List.