Mining, Multilateral Safeguards, and Political Representation in Laos

Abstract

The abundance of natural resources of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (hereafter ‘Laos’) has, in recent years, been a new building block upon which the Government has stood to promise much needed employment, education, health care, clean water, and infrastructure. Alongside the multiplication of dams being rapidly developed on its rivers, the aspiring ‘battery of Southeast Asia’ has also been resolutely eying its untapped mining sector. Though for decades Laos was one of the poorest countries in the region, it now boasts steady economic growth and appears determined to shed its ‘Least Developed Country’ status by 2020. International donors who, until recently, were the lifeline of the country, are cheering such fast paced developments vociferously.

‘Today the World Bank is the most powerful policy institution in the Lao PDR’.

Guttal and Shoemaker (2004, p. 1)