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Laos
Index
With a population of somewhat over 250,000 in 1985,
Vientiane
is the only city of any size in Laos. Three provincial
capitals
have populations of more than 20,000--Louangphrabang with
20,000,
Savannakhét with 109,000, and Pakxé with 50,000. The 1985
census
classified 15 percent of the population as "urbanized,"
but this
figure includes the populations of all district centers,
most of
which are little more than large villages of 2,000 to
3,000
persons. The expanded marketing and commercial
opportunities
resulting from economic liberalization in 1986 have
somewhat
stimulated urban growth. Vientiane planners anticipate an
annual
population expansion of 5.4 percent through the year 2000,
and many
of the more rural provincial capitals also are growing at
a
significant rate in the early 1990s.
Urban centers, for the most part, have developed from
villages
that expanded or grew together around an administrative or
trading
center. Louangphrabang is the historical capital of the
kingdom of
Lan Xang, and Vientiane and Pakxé are also centers of
earlier
kingdoms. Migration of the Lao Loum into the region
resulted in the
establishment of
muang (see Glossary),
semi-independent
principalities, which sometimes formed a larger state
entity but
which always preserved a certain autonomy as a result of
transportation and communication difficulties. Many of the
original
districts, have since become district centers, and the
word itself
is used for this political division
(see Party Structure
, ch. 4).
Although district centers rarely had more than a few
thousand
people as the mid-1990s approached, they serve as
secondary
administrative posts and marketing centers for the
surrounding
villages and are the location of the medical clinic and
lowersecondary school--grades six through eight--for the vast
majority
of the rural population.
Population displacement during the Second Indochina War
caused
growth in some cities--Vientiane, Louangphrabang, and the
main
lower Mekong Valley towns--but depopulation of centers in
the
eastern liberated zones. Xiangkhoang was destroyed by
bombing in
1969, and Xam Nua and Phôngsali were virtually
depopulated. These
provincial capitals have been revived since 1975, but
their
geographic isolation inhibits rapid growth. The capital of
Xiangkhoang was relocated twenty kilometers north to the
village of
Phônsavan. Administrative centers of several districts
were also
relocated after 1975 in order to make them more central to
all
villages in the district.
Historically, towns were located along major rivers or
in
upland valleys and were primarily populated by Lao Loum
and small
populations of Vietnamese merchants, artisans, and civil
servants
(imported by the French), as well as by Chinese and Indian
traders.
Migration of refugees during the Second Indochina War
brought an
increased minority population, which grew even faster
after 1975
because officials of the new regime, many of whom were Lao
Theung
and Lao Sung, moved into administrative posts in Mekong
towns. So
many Chinese and Indian merchants left Laos during the war
that
these groups accounted for only a small portion of the
urban
population in 1994. Many Vietnamese who were sympathetic
to the RLG
also fled, although an unknown number of advisers from
North
Vietnam were posted to Vientiane and other major centers.
The
Vietnamese population was nevertheless unlikely to exceed
a few
thousand in any towns other than Vientiane and
Savannakhét.
All provincial capitals were centers of marketing,
administration, education, and health care, but not of
manufacturing because there was virtually no industrial
production
outside the Vientiane area
(see Industry and Services
, ch.
3). As
of mid-1994, each capital had at least one upper-secondary
school--
often the only one in the province--along with specialized
technical schools for agriculture, teacher training, or
public
health
(see Education
, this ch.). Almost every province
capital
also had a hospital, but the quality of care and the
availability
of medicines--although greater than that in villages--were
frequently limited.
Everywhere, the basic village character of society is
evident.
Even in Vientiane, a substantial number of the inhabitants
are
paddy rice farmers, either as their main occupation or as
important
supplemental work. Government officials' salaries are
inadequate to
support a family, and many officials rely on family
members to
secure their basic rice supply by farming. Cities and
towns are
also important markets for vegetables and fruit produced
in the
nearby villages; the trade volume remains small outside of
Vientiane but has stimulated the gradually increasing
market
orientation of rural producers.
Traditional festivals and religious ceremonies are
observed in
towns much as in villages and are often organized on the
basis of
a neighborhood, which is typically defined by the
boundaries of a
formerly separate village. Family life-cycle ceremonies
frequently
draw guests from outside the neighborhood but rely on
close
neighbors and relatives to help with food and other
preparations,
as in a village.
Between 1975 and 1990, urban amenities such as hotels,
restaurants, and cinemas were virtually absent outside of
Vientiane, Savannakhét, and Louangphrabang. A few towns
had
government-operated guest houses for official travelers
and one or
two restaurants with a limited menu. Travelers in most
district
centers and even some provincial capitals could find a
meal only by
making arrangements with a family or the caretaker
assigned to the
guest house. Town markets are also limited in size and
number.
After the economic reforms of the late 1980s, however,
private
restaurants and hotels opened in most provincial centers
and larger
districts. Official travel increased, and more important,
Laotian
merchants, foreign delegations, and tourists again began
to travel
within the country.
Sanitation services and utilities are not widespread.
As of
mid-1994, only a few of the larger towns had municipal
water
systems, and none had sewerage services. Electrification
is a
limited but important feature of urban life
(see Industrial Output and Employment
, ch. 3). Outside of the Vientiane area,
Thakhek,
Louangphrabang, and Savannakhét, most district centers did
not have
electricity in the early 1990s. Even in towns, electric
power is
limited to a few hours a day. Automobile batteries and
voltage
inverters are widely used as a power source to watch
television or
listen to a stereo cassette player.
The presence of a foreign diplomatic and aid community
has had
a significant effect on the economy of Vientiane, both in
terms of
direct aid and through employment of Laotians by the
missions and
as domestic help
(see Foreign Aid
, ch. 3). In response,
Vientiane
merchants stock imported consumer goods such as
electronics,
clothing, and food, items purchased by Laotians much more
than by
foreigners. A once dormant service sector of automobile
and truck
repair, tailors, barbers, and hairdressers has begun to
revive.
Patrons at restaurants and the six disco establishments
are also
predominantly Laotians, reflecting the increased income
available
to private-sector businessmen and employees of foreign
organizations. Foreign assistance in Vientiane during the
early
years of the LPDR helped to develop several
upper-secondary schools
and technical-training schools and improve the two main
hospitals.
However, Laotian cities failed to attract the rural
population,
as cities do in other countries, because they offer little
obvious
economic opportunity and because the rural areas offer the
possibility of making a decent living within communities
that had
not been socially or economically fragmented by the forces
of
modernization. Further, the government initially had
explicitly
anti-urban policies. Other towns had experienced less
in-migration
than Vientiane; this pattern is likely to change if
economic
opportunities arise in secondary towns or if competition
for land
and forest resources--or restrictions on access--increase
to the
point of reducing the rural standard of living.
Nevertheless, even
if a town does not dominate the region, it has an impact
on the
lives of people living in the surrounding area. The larger
the
population of a town, the greater the town's impact on the
region.
For example, farmers within about fifteen kilometers of
Louangphrabang grow vegetables for sale in the town
market. In
Vientiane, this radius expands to forty kilometers; some
village
residents commute up to thirty kilometers each way to
government or
private jobs in the capital. Through these contacts, new
ideas and
material goods filter into rural areas.
Data as of July 1994
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