Infrastructure for a Seamless Asia
Infrastructure for a Seamless Asia
Flagship study that analyzes major challenges in developing regional infrastructure, particularly transport and energy through regional cooperation towards a seamless Asia.
Population | 7 million (2015) |
GDP at PPP (current international dollars) | 37 billion (2015) |
GDP per capita at PPP (current international dollars) | 5,416 (2015) |
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Agriculture remains an important part of the Lao PDR economy, and government leaders have recognized the sector as a key driver for reducing poverty. As part of the GMS program, Lao PDR is working to improve food security and cross-border agricultural trade, as well as reduce trans-boundary animal disease and foster climate change resilience. The ultimate goal is to improve the lives of people in rural areas, and foster economic development.
In the area of energy, Lao PDR is a leader in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Today, Lao PDR supplies 100 percent of its domestic power needs through hydropower, and derives substantial economic benefit from selling excess power to its GMS neighbors. The Lao PDR Government has recognized that providing widely available and affordable energy to people in both urban and rural areas is important for economic development and poverty reduction.
Though diversification is underway, Lao PDR’s economy is primarily resource-based, so environmental sustainability is vital. As Lao PDR’s economic activity has increased, protection of the country’s environment has become increasingly important. Lao PDR is working with its GMS partners to establish biodiversity corridors, and protect critical ecosystems.
The Lao PDR Government is working closely with its GMS partners to improve education and health, and better develop human resources in the country. This has included vocational training programs, as well as work to improve the skills of the country’s health care workers. GMS-supported programs to control communicable diseases and to improve government officials’ management abilities are also underway.
Lao PDR is using mobile and fixed telephone communications, as well as the Internet, to promote human resource development, research, business, and infrastructure development, and to enhance the country’s education system. Telecommunications access is being expanded into remote rural locations, including areas where vulnerable minority groups can benefit.
Lao PDR has seen a rapid increase in tourism in recent years. Its rich cultural and natural sites are attracting a growing number of visitors. Top destinations include Luang Prabang, Champasak, Vientiane, Vang Vieng, and Savannakhet. Direct flights between Cambodia’ Angkor Wat and Luang Prabang are an example of the efforts underway to link GMS tourist sites, and package them as a single destination. Lao PDR’s strategy is to develop tourism in order to generate jobs, protect natural cultural heritage, and reduce poverty.
The Government of Lao PDR is actively encouraging trade and investment with its GMS partners. It has worked to enhance cross-border trade, and has been active partner in the development of economic corridors using transport infrastructure to drive trade and investment.
In the area of transport, Lao PDR has developed better highway connections with Cambodia, PRC, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The country is a vital link in several of the subregion’s major economic corridors, including the North-South Economic Corridor, which spans from Kunming to Bangkok via Lao PDR, another North-South Corridor which traverses Kunming, Mohan, Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Thakhek, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville, and the East-West Corridor, which stretches 1,500 km from Mawlamyine in Myanmar, to Da Nang in Viet Nam, passing through Savannakhet-Dansavanh in Lao PDR. Through these transport corridors, Lao PDR is transforming itself from a landlocked into a land-linked country, using its location at the center of GMS to facilitate trade and investment from other countries in the subregion.
GMS Contacts in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
ADB and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Fact Sheet
Flagship study that analyzes major challenges in developing regional infrastructure, particularly transport and energy through regional cooperation towards a seamless Asia.
This is a colorful account of a 19-day journey along the new or upgraded economic corridors linking members of the Greater Mekong Subregion. Based on conversations with ordinary folk, especially entrepreneurs, these stories show how trade and tourism in particular are burgeoning with improving connectivity between People's Republic of China's Guangxi and Yunnan provinces, Viet Nam, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Thailand and Cambodia.
The 9th Meeting of the Greater Mekong Subregion Working Group on Human Resource Development was held in Guilin, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China, on 20-21 May 2009.
In this issue of the Journal of Greater Mekong Subregion Development Studies, we feature five articles that concern some of the more pressing issues of cooperation in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) - trade facilitation and trade logistics, the trade impact of cross-border transport infrastructure, tourism corridor development, and biofuels and rural renewable energy. The diversity of the topics tackled in this volume reflects the multifaceted challenges of regional cooperation.
The Fifth Meeting of the GMS Working Group on Agriculture was held in Vientiane, the Lao People's Democratic Republic on 22-24 September 2008.
This is the summary of proceedings from the 14th Annual Meeting of the GMS Working Group on Environment (WGE AM14) held on 2 July 2008 in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR.
At the core of the Mekong region are the 320 million people who share a common culture and are nourished by the same great river. More connected than ever before, lives are changing as the meaning of community expands beyond borders. The photographs in My Mekong take us into the heart of that community, as seen through the eyes of its young people.
The Second GMS Environment Ministers Meeting (EMM-2) was held in Don Chan Palace Hotel in Vientiane, Lao PDR on 29 January 2008. The overall theme of the meeting was “Sustainable Natural Resource Use for Economic Competitiveness.”
The meeting took stock of achievements of the GMS Core Environment Program (CEP) since its inception last April 2006 and discussed emerging environment, conservation and poverty reduction issues such as climate change, global warming and their effects on socio-economic growth and development.
This joint statement was issued at the 2nd GMS Environment Ministers' Meeting on 29 January 2008 in Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
MANILA, PHILIPPINES (13 November 2007) - The Asian Development Bank will manage a $500,000 technical assistance grant funded by the People's Republic of China to help countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion develop results-based monitoring and evaluation systems used in assessing efforts to reduce poverty.