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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
The international governmental orgganizations active in
Laos
constitute a distinguished list, and, in a sense, Laos has
become
one of their star pupils. The
World Bank (see Glossary),
IMF, UNDP,
and
Asian Development Bank (see Glossary)
work closely with the
small coterie of economic planners within Laos and can
point to
notable economic progress in the 1990s as a result of the
application of their advice. The national currency, the
kip, has
remained stable at its official rate since 1990, foreign
reserves
have grown, and inflation has fallen dramatically. The
party
leadership undertook tough measures such as reducing
government
employment, encouraging privatization, and ending special
subsidies, in line with advice from international
advisers. The
resident IMF representative received private telephone
calls from
the president in search of economic counsel. In the early
1990s, an
unusual level of satisfaction with the Laotian
leadership's
willingness to receive economic advice from experts could
be found
among international governmental organizations' personnel
in Laos.
In 1990 the UNDP coordinated approximately US$12.3
million in
economic assistance from various UN financial and
development
agencies, and thirteen international governmental
organizations
disbursed approximately US$4.1 million
(see Foreign Aid
, ch. 3).
The most active among these were the UNHCR, the United
Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF--see Glossary),
the UN Drug
Control
Program, and the Food and Agriculture Organization. In
March 1992,
the Laos Roundtable for bilateral aid and pledges recorded
approximately US$472 million in project aid from
international
governmental organizations. In 1992 and 1993 the Asian
Development
Bank was funding such projects as road construction,
hydropower,
and water supply.
Nongovernmental organizations have tried to make an
impact on
Laos, particularly in the lives of villagers outside the
privileged
Mekong Valley towns adjacent to prospering Thailand.
Twenty-two
such organizations disbursed approximately US$3.259
million in
1990, with the American Friends Service Committee
(Quakers) and the
Mennonite Central Committee (Mennonites) contributing
approximately
15 percent and 10 percent of the total, respectively, and
concentrating on health and agricultural programs. From
1990 to
1993, the American Friends Service Committee budgeted
slightly more
than US$2.3 million for programs in Laos. These included
smallscale irrigation and rice-based integrated farming system
projects,
women's development and veterinary vaccination programs,
and
emergency relief projects that include assisting
internallydisplaced communities. The Mennonite Central Committee
contributed
approximately US$1.2 million during the 1990-93 period for
programs
in agriculture and integrated development, emergency
assistance,
education, health, and social services, economic and
technical
assistance, and "material resources in kind."
Constraints on foreign policy nonetheless remain in the
ideological commitment pronounced since 1975 to the
socialist road
to social welfare, mapped out exclusively by the party.
This
theoretical baggage, however, has not precluded generous
foreign
aid from Australia, Japan, and Sweden, or attendance at
conferences of the
Nonaligned Movement (see Glossary).
Obtaining observer
status in ASEAN in 1992 also was constructive and points
toward possible membership in that organization before the end of
the century. But the punitive seminar camps and the unrecorded
death of the sequestered former King Savang Vatthana have left a
negative
impression on democratic nations that Laos cannot afford
to
disregard or exacerbate as it seeks investors and donors
among the
capitalist states.
The possibility that a domineering neighbor might arise
from
the competing rivalries of the regional states seems
unlikely in
the mid-1990s, and a policy of maximizing the economic
engagement
of many states in Laos seems to suit the circumstances. It
appears
to be unrewarding for Thailand, Vietnam, or China to
consider
aligning with Laos and creating tension with their
neighbors. A
policy of gradually assimilating Laos into ASEAN and
competing for
its dormant and modest market is easier to foresee.
* * *
Few books dealing exclusively with contemporary Laos
have been
published since the establishment of the LPDR in 1975.
Among those
with political analyses are MacAlister Brown and Joseph J.
Zasloff's Apprentice Revolutionaries: The Communist
Movement in
Laos, 1930-1985, which includes examinations of the
LPDR's
leadership and ruling party, political institutions and
policies,
economic policies and political doctrine, social politics,
and
external relations. A more recent volume is Laos:
Beyond the
Revolution, edited by Zasloff and Leonard Unger, which
contains
essays on politics, economics, society, external
relations, and
United States policy toward Laos. Two books written or
edited by
the Australian scholar Martin Stuart-Fox are also useful:
Contemporary Laos: Studies in the Politics and Society
of the
Lao People's Democratic Republic has essays on various
subjects
by international experts, and Laos: Politics, Economics
and
Society provides a succinct, insightful account of the
social,
political, and economic systems of the country and its
domestic and
foreign policies.
For the reader who wishes information in English about
politics
in Laos since 1975, the following periodicals with
occasional
articles on Laos are helpful: Asian Survey,
Current
History, Southeast Asian Affairs, and
Indochina
Issues. The best journalistic coverage of Laos is
found in the
weekly Far Eastern Economic Review, and its annual
Asia
Yearbook. The United States government provides two
valuable
source of translations from the Lao media: the Foreign
Broadcast
Information Service's Daily Report: East Asia, and
the Joint
Publications Research Service's Report: East
Asia/Southeast
Asia. Summaries of important items on Laos appearing
in these
two publications are found in the quarterly Indochina
Chronology. (For further information and complete
citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of July 1994
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