 | The article's lead section may need to be rewritten.(August 2024) |
| The article's lead section may need to be rewritten.(August 2024) |
As of April 2024, the World Bank has 28 ongoing projects in Laos, with a total funding value of $938 million (USD). Majority of the projects (23) and funding ($883 million) is financed by the International Development Association (IDA), the agency within the World Bank that offers highly concessional rates to poorer developing countries. [1] The World Bank also states that the International Finance Corporation (IFC), an agency dedicated to private sector projects, is active in Laos, working "mainly in the power, banking, manufacturing, and service sectors." Five policy areas are targeted by the World Bank for reform, including raising public revenue, improving expenditure efficiency, restructuring public debt, strengthening financial sector stability, and improving exports and business environments. [1] The 2023-26 Country Partnership Framework outlines these plans, advising on macroeconomic and debt-related policy. [2] The World Bank Country Manager for Laos is Alex Kramer.
World Bank projects in Laos include the 2020 COVID-19 Response Project and the 2018 Competitiveness and Trade Project, which aimed to vaccinate the population, mitigating the spread of disease, and help businesses recover from the economic effects of the pandemic, respectively. [1] Other projects in Laos include the 2003 Scaling-Up Participatory Sustainable Forest Management Project, which strengthened relationships between forest villages and local governments, the 2019 Reducing Rural Poverty and Malnutrition Project, and the Southeast Asia Regional Economic Corridor and Connectivity Project, expected to be completed in May 2028. Most recently, phase 2 of the Health and Nutrition Services Access Project approved in February of 2024, will help over 7.5 million receive improved access to essential health services and aims to nutrition in rural areas. [1] Funded by the World Bank, the Australian Government, Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance), and the Global Fund, the second phase of the project aims to provide more services and raise greater awareness in rural upland areas. [3]
As a part of their initiative to raise public revenue for education, health, and social protection, the World Bank asked Laos to "increase taxes on cigarettes and alcohol as part of efforts to address high inflation and currency depreciation." According to Radio Free Asia, Laos has accrued $18.7 billion since the end of 2022, which has "destabilized the country's macroeconomy and slowed economic growth." Most of the investors in Laos are from China and Vietnam, with over half of the national debt owed to China. [4] The World Bank has predicted that service payments as a result of rising debt could be as much as 39% GDP, as the Lao Kip has depreciated 21% against the US dollar and 29% against the Thai baht last year, caused by a shortage of foreign currency to pay back the debt. In an interview with an official from the Bank of the Lao PDR, Radio Free Asia reports that the control of exchange rates and law enforcement on foreign currency management has failed. [4] In December the Lao Ministry of Industry and Trade required all imports and exports to be registered with the government and conduct transactions solely through Lao banks, which may be causing business people in Laos to turn to the black market for foreign currency. [5] In January 2023, Vientiane Times reported the growth model of the World Bank to be limited in job creation, with high public debt fueling instability and threatening future development. [6]
The World Bank projects in Laos have previously received criticisms for the effects of policies promoting deregulation and foreign investment. In a 2014 publication the Oakland Institute criticized the World Bank's IFC for funding the Vietnamese corporations Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) and Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG), who have commonly used violence along with local authorities to seize natural resources with no accountability. [7] Land investment law requires compensation and relocation for displaced and affected communities, but the lack of formal land tenure and enforcement has led to forced evictions and human rights violations. [7] The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Energy Database System has also criticized the World Bank for committing to high-risk hydropower dam projects despite the opposition of water and development experts. [8] After the collapse of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy saddle dam in Southern Laos and the failure of the Nam Theun 2 (NT2) dam, which flooded farmland and deprived villagers of food and crops for income, many officials in Laos are hesitant to support the 140 hydropower dams planning to be built by the Lao government. Critics argue that social and environmental risk must be accounted for in the mega-dam projects, arguing for greater community engagement with government projects and the consideration of alternatives to hydropower altogether. [8]
Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country and one of the two Marxist-Leninist states in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula, Laos is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city is Vientiane.
The economy of Laos is a lower-middle income developing economy. Being one of the socialist states, the Lao economic model resembles the Chinese socialist market and/or Vietnamese socialist-oriented market economies by combining high degrees of state ownership with openness to foreign direct investment and private ownership in a predominantly market-based framework.
This article concerns the systems of transportation in Laos. Laos is a country in Asia, which possesses a number of modern transportation systems, including several highways and a number of airports. As a landlocked country, Laos possesses no ports or harbours on the sea, and the difficulty of navigation on the Mekong means that this is also not a significant transport route.
The foreign relations of Laos, internationally designated by its official name as the Lao People's Democratic Republic, after the takeover by the Pathet Lao in December 1975, were characterized by a hostile posture toward the West, with the government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic aligning itself with the Soviet bloc, maintaining close ties with the Soviet Union and depending heavily on the Soviets for most of its foreign assistance. Laos also maintained a "special relationship" with Vietnam and formalized a 1977 treaty of friendship and cooperation that created tensions with China.
Dams and reservoirs in Laos are the cornerstone of the Lao government's goal of becoming the "battery of Asia".
The Nam Theun 2 Hydropower Project, or simply NT2, is a hydroelectric dam on the Nam Theun River in Laos. Commercial operation of the plant began in April 2010. The scheme diverts water from the Nam Theun, a tributary of the Mekong River, to the Xe Bang Fai River, enabling a generation capacity of 1,075 MW, from a 350 m (1,148 ft) difference in elevation between the reservoir and the power station.
The Nam Ngum Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Nam Ngum River, a major tributary of the Mekong River in Laos. It was the first hydropower dam built in the Lao PDR.
Wattay International Airport is one of the few international airports in Laos and the country's main international gateway, serving the capital Vientiane, located 3 km (1.9 mi) outside of the city centre in Sikhottabong district, Vientiane Prefecture. The airport is operated by the Lao Airport Authority (LAA) and serves as a hub for Lao Skyway, Lao Central Airlines and Lao Airlines. The Lao Air Force also operates an installation at one end of the airport.
Thongloun Sisoulith is a Lao historian and politician serving as General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party since 15 January 2021 and President of Laos since 22 March 2021.
Since the first HIV/AIDS case in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) was identified in 1990, the number of infections has continued to grow. In 2005, UNAIDS estimated that 3,700 people in Lao PDR were living with HIV.
Électricité du Laos(EDL) is the state corporation of Laos that owns and operates the country's electricity generation, electricity transmission and electricity distribution assets. The company also manages the import and export of electricity from the national electricity grid of the country. EDL was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Vientiane.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Laos go unreported and unnoticed. While homosexuality is legal in Laos, it is very difficult to assess the current state of acceptance and violence that LGBT people face because of government interference. Numerous claims have suggested that Laos is one of the most tolerant communist states. Despite such claims, discrimination still exists. Laos provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for any of the rights that opposite-sex married couples enjoy, as neither same-sex marriage nor civil unions are legal.
Laos has 422 km (262 mi) of 1,435 mm standard gauge railways, primarily consisting of the Boten–Vientiane railway, which opened in December 2021. It also has a 12 km (7 mi) metre gauge railway with two stations in Vientiane, Khamsavath and Thanaleng, both of which are connected to Thailand's railway system.
The estimated hydropower potential of Mekong River Basin about 58,930 Megawatts (MW). As of February 2024, there are an estimated 167 Hydropower Plants (HPPs) in the Mekong, with a combined installed capacity of some 36,376.3 MW. An additional 20 HPPs are currently under construction and at various stages of completion. These have a combined installed capacity of an additional 4,535.5 MW.
The Don Sahong is a hydroelectric dam commissioned in 2020 on the Mekong River in Siphandone area of Champasak Province, Laos, less than two kilometers upstream of the Laos–Cambodia border.
The Houay Ho is a dam located in Samakkhixay District of Attapeu Province, Laos, 160 km (99 mi) east of Pakse and 30 km (19 mi) northwest of Attapeu. The project is considered the first privately financed joint venture 'build-operate-transfer' (BOT) hydropower project in Laos. It has installed capacity of 152.1 megawatts (204,000 hp), almost all of which is exported to Thailand.
This page describes energy and electricity production, consumption and import in Laos.
Bolikhamsai is a province of Laos. Pakxan, Thaphabat, Pakkading, Borikhane, Viengthong, and Khamkeut are its districts and Pakxan is its capital city. The province is the site of the Nam Theun 2 Dam, the country's largest hydroelectric project.
Laos is a nation with plentiful surface water and broad rivers, but outside of cities there is little infrastructure to make that water clean and accessible. Very little improvement has been made since the end of the Laotian Civil War in 1975, especially compared to peer nations such as Thailand. By 2015, 76% of Laotians nationwide were estimated to have access to “improved” water, while 71% were estimated to have access to “improved” sanitation.
The Nam Ou cascade hydropower project is a series of seven hydroelectric dams along the Nam Ou river which are located in the provinces of Phongsaly and Luang Prabang in northern Laos. The project is managed by the Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina) and the Lao government. The project is the series of dams include seven levels of reservoirs in an attempt to mitigate ecological deterioration. The construction of the hydropower project is being completed in two phases. Phase I of the dams, including Nam Ou 2, Nam Ou 5, and Nam Ou 6 began operating on May 12, 2016. Phase II of the dams, including Nam Ou 1, 3, 4, and 7 is expected to be completed in 2020.
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