At the present moment there is no integrated transport or logistics system in place in the region but various multimodal transport corridors are available to users of the regional transport network. The smooth flow of freight within a multimodal transport corridor will determine its success. The case of Laotian garment exporters is taken to illustrate the point. The transport costs in this study are based on offers that were obtained by transport service providers such as freight forwarders , trucking firms, shipping lines, rail operators , port authorities which operate on Lao PDR’s export routes. Prices quoted concern the shipment of 1 TEU (twenty foot equivalent unit) on a Freight All Kind (FAK) rate. Existing alternative routes and modal combinations for the movement of unitized freight between Lao PDR and Rotterdam in The
Netherlands are summarized here under in Table I and illustrated in Figure 2 (see Appendix for a more detailed map of each route).