Three years ago, LTS Ventures was tasked with building a simple microfinance platform for Laos’s army of village banks and savings unions. It took off like a rocket, boosting financial inclusion, cutting fraud. Now the firm is eyeing fresh external funding and expansion across southeast Asia.

Laos has twice postponed a bond that it badly needs to issue. A small country with few financing options, hit by Covid, downgraded and in debt to China – its problems are not unique.

In the landlocked nation, credit is in short supply and few have bank accounts. Foreign lenders, development banks, microfinance institutions and fintechs want to solve its woes – it’s just not clear that Laos wants them back.

A close neighbour with a large infrastructure deficit, southeast Asia is a natural target for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, but when do mutual benefits for China and the region become regional dominance for the Asian giant?