Champassack calls for almost 100 billion kip for road repair
By Vinnaly
(KPL25.04.2012) The authorities of Champassack province has called for 98 billion kip for the renovation of bridge and road hit by severe flooding and landslide removal.
More than 300 million kip fund is now an urgent request for repairing the damaged roads.
A senior staff of Champassack Public Works and Transport Service, Mr. Phitsahong Phoummavongsa said Champassack province was hit by tropical storm Nork Tene between July and August, triggering flash flood.
Over 80 roads in 10 districts have been reportedly broken caused by severe flooding.
The worst-hit districts are Paksong with more than 100 km long, following by Soukhouma with the stretch of 70 km, five bridges.
The budget for road and Mekong embankment renovation cost 98 billion kip, Mr Phitsahong said.
He added that many roads in Parkse municipality have been broken. ຍາມຝົນມາຮອດແລ້ວ ຖນົນ345 ສາຍ ຂັວ34ແຫ່ງ ແລະ ໂຮງຮຽນໂຮງຫມໍ182 ທີ່ຖືກພັຍທັມມະຊາດ(ສູນເສັຍທັງຫົມດ 1600ລ້ານ ດລ ໃນຂະນະທີ່ງົປມານທັງ ປທ ມີແຕ່ 1800ລ້ານ ເດິສັດເດັຍຣະສານທັງຫລາຍ) ທຳລາຍໃນປິ 2011ຍັງບໍ່ມີຄວາມສາມາດສ້າງສາບຸຣະໄຫ່ມຂື້ນໄດ້ ຊ້ຳໄປ ເສຶອກ ຕົບມື ຮ້ອງໂຮແບບຊີ້ນສຕີວ່າ ປິ ນີ້ ເສຖກິດ ໂຈນແນວລາວມັນຊີໂຕອິກແລ້ວ ໂຄດຊັ່ວສຸ
(KPL24.04.2012)-- L’ambassade des Etats-Unis au Laos a remis un chèque au Fonds mondial de conservation des animaux sauvages au Laos. Cette aide est destinée à la mise en œuvre de l’étude sur les sites et sur l’habitat des pangasius (pa Beuk) du Mékong. Ce poisson peut peser plus de 350 kg et mesurer 3m de long.
Cette aide vise également à protéger les poissions rares et à financer des études sur les nouvelles espèces de poisson du Mékong, a déclaré M. Victor Cowling, représentant du Fonds Mondial de Conservation des animaux sauvages au Laos.
La remise de cette aide a été organisée, le 23 avril à Vientiane par S. E. Mme Karen B. Stewart, ambassadrice des Etats - Unis au Laos et M. Victor Cowling.
LAOS: Communal land titles could save more than forests
Photo: Contributor/IRIN A villager cuts bamboo from the local forestVIENTIANE, 16 April 2012 (IRIN) - With pressure on natural resources increasing in Laos, the first community land titles granted to five villages in Vientiane Province could provide a national model for environmental protection while safeguarding the livelihoods of villagers.
“It’s very important because the communal land titles can give communities the right to access and harvest natural resources, and overcome land concessions to companies,” Souvanpheng Phommasane, an advisor for SNV Netherlands Development Organization told IRIN.
The title deeds cover an area of 2,189 hectares of bamboo-producing forest. After a two-year process the land was finally handed over to the five villages in Sangthong District, 50km west of the capital, Vientiane, in February.
Hanna Saarinen, coordinator for the Land Issues Working Group, which represents 40 concerned civil society organizations, says the issue of land ownership is becoming more urgent.
“In the last five to 10 years there have been more and more competing interests [seeking control] over natural resources,” she said. Private sector companies as well as communities “have been using the same land, the same forest for years”.
The government’s 2011-2015 development plan sets a target of at least 8 percent annual economic growth, driven primarily by extractive industries, such as mining, hydropower and plantation agriculture. All these activities require significant land allocation, while slash-and-burn agriculture and logging further diminish forested areas.
Trees once spread across 70 percent of Laos, but in 2010 the Department of Forestry estimated that this has now been reduced to just 40 percent. The decline in forest cover not only has wide environmental impacts but also affects rural incomes.
Per capita income stands at just over US$1,000 per year, the World Bank reports, and 75 percent of the country’s workforce earns a livelihood from agriculture.
Government statistics note that non-timber forest products, such as bamboo, contribute about 40 percent of rural income.
A bamboo trade association in Sangthong District, set up in 2007, designs and produces furniture and handicrafts made from local bamboo. The district administration states that households involved in the project can earn an additional 2 million Lao Kip ($250) a month - a significant amount for villagers living in one of the 46 districts designated by the government as the poorest in the country.
Photo: Contributor/IRIN Villagers practice slash and burn agriculture in northern Laos Salongsay Mixay, the head of Na Po village, says the local forests were under threat before the land titles were granted.
“There were different cases. A big truck comes from somewhere - no one knows where, maybe the city - and they cut [bamboo] and went away. The second case is the investor who talks to the villagers and says, ‘I want to cut this much [bamboo],’ and pays a little amount of money, and leaves.”
Replicating the land-grant model across this Southeast Asian nation may not be straightforward. “In Sangthong it was a specific case because they had this bamboo project - they were already managing the bamboo areas, they had a forest management plan - but there are no clear guidelines or manuals, so the districts do not know how to do it in practice,” said Saarinen.
Support from a number of development organizations, with funding through the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme, and implementation by the United Nations Development Programme, helped the Sangthong District administration to tackle the procedures needed to apply for and eventually be granted the title deeds to the land.
Phommasane from SNV Netherlands believes that if other districts receive similar support they could also get communal land titles. The government is carrying out a land policy review that is expected to formalize the procedures for granting communal land titles.
Giving ownership of more of the land to the villagers who earn their living from it could be critical to the government’s stated ambition of restoring forest cover to 65 percent of the country by 2015.
Khamoon Tiengthila, the Sangthong District deputy governor, says he is proud of what his district has achieved. “It’s a small project that contributes to preserving the world’s environment. The forest is important for development and the economy.”
Remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers repatriated from Laos
(KPL/VOV 27.04.12) - A ceremony was held in the central province of Nghe An on April 22 to rebury 84 sets of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who had sacrificed their lives on the former battlefields in Laos.
The remains were found and excavated by a special working group of Vietnam' s Nghe An province and Laos' Xieng Khouang and Vientiane provinces during a joint search campaign in the two Lao provinces in the 2011-2012 dry season.
Earlier, local Lao people and Vietnamese nationals in Xieng Khouang province held a requiem to commemorate the fallen Vietnamese soldiers and experts.
Over the past 28 years, the Military Command of the Nghe An province has searched, repatriated and reburied more than 12,000 sets of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts at Vietnam-Laos War Martyr Cemetery in Anh Son district and a war martyr cemetery in Do Luong district.
Of the total, nearly 800 remains have been identified.
(KPL)-- La Pharmacie américaine Walgreens a déclaré lors de la cérémonie du lancement de campagne de vaccination contre la grippe et de célébration de la semaine mondiale de vaccination, le 24 avril qu’elle offrira un don en vaccin antigrippe d’une valeur totale de 9 millions de dollars au gouvernement de la RDP du Laos pour soutenir son projet de vaccination contre la grippe qui pourrait se produire pendant l’hiver . Le ministère laotien de la Santé publique de commencer la distribution de ces vaccins le 26 avril et durera jusqu’à la fin mai 2012. Ce don fait partie des efforts de coopération commune entre le centre de prévention et de contrôle des maladies des Etats-Unis et le ministère de la Santé publique du Laos, sur la base de la coopération existant depuis longtemps entre le ministère laotien de la santé, l’OMS, le centre de prévention et de contrôle des maladies des Etats-Unis et l’ambassade des Etats-Unis à Vientiane. Cette aide reste un but prévisionnel de Walgreens pour vacciner les personnes en risque qui sont les femmes en ceinte, les enfants et les personnes âgées ainsi que celles touchées par les maladies pulmonaires et cardiaques. De son côté le ministère laotien de la santé prévoit de vacciner plus de 357000 personnes contre la grippe.
WikiLeaks on Laos The Laos files from WikiLeaks underscored the country’s underdevelopment, endemic corruption in the bureaucracy and the fragile state of its environment. But we already know that. What makes the cables interesting is the kind of frankness that we don’t often get to see or hear from diplomats’ public statements.
For example, here’s how the US Embassy in Vientiane described the poor and unequal economic conditions in the country:
‘Although GoL (Government of Laos) ministers and officials with salaries of less than S75 per month sport cars villas and worthy of Monte Carlo, GDP per capita is still officially less than $400...Unemployment is epidemic, underemployment is endemic, crime is rising, and the investment climate is among the least hospitable in the world.
‘There is almost no rule of law or basic human freedom in Laos, and education is in the hands of a corrupt and ideologically hidebound ministry that uses ADB money to build a grandiose but unnecessary new ministry building while rural children sit on logs and try to remember what a teacher looked like.’
One report even declared a ‘direct consequence of decades of abuse of power is that there is no public trust’ and that ‘government officials are presumed to be corrupt unless proven otherwise.’
These corrupt officials apparently approved the implementation of several development projects that are hurting the poor:
March 7, 2012 A pastor has been released from prison in Laos after being locked up for nearly 13 years because of his Christian activities, ASSIST News Servicereports. Bounchan Kanthavong was set free Feb. 2, having been arrested in June 1999 and sentenced to 12 years in jail for treason and sedition. According to the ministry Barnabas Fund, Bounchan's only "crimes" appear to have been receiving Bible training and sharing his faith with customers in his clothing shop; his actions were perceived as a threat to national security and the traditional Lao religion of spirit worship, and were thus interpreted as treason. Lao authorities warned him repeatedly to stop practicing and sharing Christianity, and ordered him to cease all worship activities at his shop, but his witness led to around 70 people accepting Christ. Following his arrest, his wife took over the leadership of their Christian community, which has grown to more than 3,000 believers today. Bounchan refused to renounce Christ to leave prison early, and his health suffered during his time in jail.
From: black saphire To: laosnetworkroom@googlegroups.com Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 8:00 AM Subject: RE: ( 249 ) ກົບ ເລືອກນາຍ ແລະ ລີງກັບລີງ ຊິງກັນຂື້ນໄມ້ ບາດຈະໄດ້ ບັກໂກກນາໂຖ.
Vietnam, Laos NAs promote cooperation!!! The National Assemblies (NAs) of Vietnam and Laos opened a conference in the northern province of Son La on April 23 to discuss boosting mutual cooperation, solidarity and friendship.
NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung and Lao NA Chairwoman Pany Yathotou. (Source: VNA) Speaking at the opening ceremony, Vietnamese NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung welcomed his Lao counterpart, Pany Yathotu, and her entourage to the conference and conveyed his best wishes to the Lao people on their Bunpimay festival. He emphasized the significance of this year’s conference, saying it marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties and 35th anniversary of the signing of the Friendship and Co-operation Treaty.Lao NA President Pany Yathotu said the event offers an opportunity for both nations to review the strong ties, friendship, solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, States, and peoples, which were founded by the late Presidents Ho Chi Minh and Cayson Phomvihan and nurtured by their successors. She said that over the past decades Laos and Vietnam have joined hands to attain great achievements and feats of arms during their struggles for national independence, which makes their bilateral relationship an invaluable heritage.We are proud to see that despite regional and international complications, the special friendship and comprehensive cooperation between Laos and Vietnam has developed substantially, for prosperity and happiness of the two nations, said Ms Yathotu.The Lao Party, State and people will continue working together with Vietnam to foster their traditional relationship and special solidarity to make mutually beneficial and comprehensive cooperation more effective, Ms Yathotu stressed.On behalf of the Lao Party, State and people, she expressed gratitude for Vietnam’s assistance to Laos during its revolutionary cause.The Vietnamese people have always stood side by side with Laos, helping it to achieve victory over foreign imperialists and reap achievements on its path to socialism, she said.At the plenary session after the opening ceremony, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his Lao counterpart Somsavad Lengsavad highlighted the effective bilateral cooperation between the two countries since they signed the 1977 Friendship and Co-operation Treaty.They also proposed measures to fully tap their potential for mutual benefit, especially by raising awareness of their relationship and strengthening cooperation in all fields. Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:09:19 -0700From: ath_dhatpa@yahoo.comSubject: Re: ( 249 ) ກົບ ເລືອກນາຍ ແລະ ລີງກັບລີງ ຊິງກັນຂື້ນໄມ້ ບາດຈະໄດ້ ບັກໂກກນາໂຖ.To: laosnetworkroom@googlegroups.com ສະບາຍດີທ່ານທັງຫລາຍ,
KHAMSAY SOUPHANOUVONG AND A REVOLUTION THAT NEVER CAME By eDemocrat
The nostalgia that the Lao people have for the royal family and members of the aristocracy remains strong as ever. Despite Khamsay Souphanouvong's ideological attachment and allegiance to the Communist party in Lao, many Lao expatriates seems to be willing welcome the new defector amongst its fold. Any defector from Vientiane now tends to expose the cruelty of the regime, while at the same time exposing the frailty of the ruling elite. After his return from the Soviet Union, Khamsay climbed to the pinnacle of the political structure of communist Lao. He became a Member of the Central Committee of Lao People's Revolution Party (LPRP) and held a ministerial post that oversaw millions of dollars. In the mid 1980s, when Kaysone Phomvihane instituted the reform campaign known as "chintanakan mai" or new thinking, Khamsay fell out of favor among the oligarchs. The case of Khamsay's loss of power and influence is nothing special in Lao politics. After the death of Khaysone Phomvihane, his wife---Mrs. Thongvinh Phomvihane---was immediately embroiled in lawsuits and allegations of trafficking narcotics between Lao and Vietnam. Thus, when Khamsay lost his post, it appeared to be more than a political reshuffling. Khamsay was found to be in the wrong side of the equation. Having been educated in the Soviet Union, he might have thought that by taking a pro-Russia stand would secure his political foundation among the communist cadres. After all, Russia was the superpower of the eastern block. By all account Khamsay's political thinking was sensible at the time. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Russia became increasingly less influential over the politics of Lao. Foreign aids were cut. Not having sufficient fund to keep its contingent of advisers in Lao, many Russian military advisers were recalled home. Foreign aids from Russia were dwindling while the Lao Communist Party increasingly turned to Hanoi for guidance and protection. Many Lao intellectuals who had been educated in Russia or the former Soiviet Unions appeared to be more moderate and forward looking in there thinking. Khamsay would not have been an exception. It would not be surprising if Khamsay had indeed foreseen the impending doom of the Soviet Unions while he was studying there, and thus aligned his political thinking accordingly upon his return to Vientiane. If that had been the case, it is more of an irony than fate that the oligarchs in Vientiane beat him to the race by seizing the opportunity of the day and quickly turn to Hanoi for support and guidance fearing that Vientiane will follow Moscow. The Bangkok Post and The Nation wrote that Khamsay left Lao incognito probably because he could not take the embarrassment after having lost his influence and power in Vientiane. That may be true, but such reasoning does not tell us the whole picture of politics in Lao. Recall that Mrs. Thongvinh Phomvihane became immediately embroiled with lawsuits alleging that she stole millions of dollars from some government cooperative enterprises. Moreover, there were also allegations of drug trafficking against her. In the case of Khamsay, there is more to it that just having lost his job at the Central Committee of Party. This is a case of an ex officio who fled from failed reform efforts. Politics in Lao very much depends on its allies. During the 19060s and 1970s, the leadership in Vientiane, so too in Sam Neu, closely watched every move made by the US. In particular, the secret negotiations between Le Duc Tho of North Vietnam and Henry Kissinger concerning the Vietnamization process and the eventual domino falling of Indochina. In the late 1990s, this domino mentality remains etched in the thinking of all Lao intellectuals. Khamsay would probably thought----and sensibly so---that the down fall of communism in Moscow would spell similar chapters in Vientiane and Hanoi. After all Lao s neighbor to the south, Cambodia, had changed almost overnight with the restoration of democracy---albeit tenuous, and the return of the monarchy. However, this time proxy politics of Indochina is no longer dominated by bipolar politics of the late 1970s. The fall of the Soviet Unions and other fraternal countries of the eastern Blocs did not deter the socialist commitment of the die hard revolutionaries of Indochina. It appears that China and Vietnam remain two influential countries holding Lao under its ideological spells. In this case of Khamsay, the day of student uprising and younger intellectuals, including those from the west and those in Lao and had been educated in the Eastern Bloc, never came. Lao students in Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc. who saw political dissidents unfolding the tricolors over a tank in front of the Russian Dumas had high hope that the three white headed elephant in red back ground would once again be flown in Vientiane. However, this hope was quickly dashed when the oligarchs in Vientiane tighten their reign. The day of the nouveau revolution in Vientiane never came. That that dream for a better for Lao shall never die. The cry for freedom must be heard. The call for liberty must be answered. Be it dissident by choice or defector by circumstances, the Lao people must work toward restoring democracy to Lao and its people. Come, my Lao compatriots. Awake from your long nights of lumbering sleep and look at what is going on in your country today. Communists are fighting among themselves. Some of the diehard revolutionaries cannot even sleep in their own house and must seek shelter in far-flung quarters of the globe. The current situation in Lao must remind some of us of the old days of the 1960s 0r 1970s of communist China when chaos replaced order. Listen. Can you hear it? Can you hear the humming cries of our people to bring those who flee from justice to the bench and bar of law to be judged for their transgressions? You will almost hear it if you allow yourselves to listen for these cries are louder than the call of the million elephants of Lao. Speak. Speak amongst yourselves about the destiny of your country and people. The killing has long ended, but the raping and plundering are in earnest. We all hope that communism will fall in Lao and when it does, what will be left for us to see. Billions of dollars in foreign debts. Decayed physical infrastructure. Dilapidated institutional framework. More than 70% of our rain forest destroyed. These pressing issues deserving your utmost attention will go unnoticed and questions go unanswered unless you speak up and make known your love and concerns for your country and people. Think. Yes, think about your future and the future of your country. Every Lao expatriates has his or her future inextricably tied to Lao. It is unthinkable to think that communism is a victimless crime against the Lao people. In the course of our history, we had made conscious decision of which path to take. Many had chosen to follow the path to Socialism. For them, to kill a thousand for the sake of saving the seat of a few is worth doing. There are also those among us who chose the road to democracy. As the night of tyranny began to hover over Lao, we fled to safety and had been since sheltered by the free world. Despite having lived in relative security of the free West, we must not forget those who we left behind. We must listen to their cry for freedom. We must speak for them when their ability to cry in protest has been muted by brute force. We must think of their plight because their destiny and ours are inseparable.
021602 Thailand-- Lao FM to attend ASEAN meeting in Thailand: offic Topic List Reply 021602 Thailand-- Lao FM to attend ASEAN meeting in Thailand: official
Saturday February 16, 5:54 PM
Lao FM to attend ASEAN meeting in Thailand: official
BANGKOK, Feb 16 (AFP) - Lao Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad is to attend a meeting of Southeast Asian ministers in Thailand next week, a Thai official said Saturday amid speculation he could be ousted from the regime.
Somsavat has taken three months' leave of absence just weeks before an expected government reshuffle, sparking reports that he faces being booted out of the secretive communist government.
"Mr. Somsavat will come to Thailand for the Phuket meeting on the morning oF February 20," a Thai foreign ministry spokesman said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) talks on the resort island.
No official announcement of Somsavat's leave of absence was made before his departure for Singapore earlier this month, diplomats in Vientiane said.
But the minister told foreign envoys that he was going to study English and that his deputy, Phongsavath Boupha, would hold the fort during his three-month absence.
The authorities used the same excuse of overseas training when Khamxay Souphanouvong, a minister in the prime minister's office, won asylum in New Zealand in November 2000 in one of the most high-ranking defections from Laos.
As we all have learn and known that communism is a failure and destructive political system in the world. There's no progress improvement in Laos for the last 37 years. I am sure everyone should know by now why USSR had collapsed during the cold war, right? Why is the uprising in Middle East, Burma, and many other part of the world today? People wants freedom, democracy, dignity, human right, and all dictatorship system must end now!!! Look at South Korea and North Korea with two different political system and how much progress and modernize of South Korea compare to dictatorship regime that run country to the ground. Lao communist is far worst than North Korea in term of progress in the country. What has really change in Laos for the last 37 years when communist neo Lao/Keo took over the country. Here's some of the thing that already had happen in Laos today.
1. Drug problems and trafficking through out the country. This is the worse in all time of the history of Laos in any era, decade, and even century. There's no plan to resolve this issue nor any program to help people get out of this problem. Government only slowly killing many younger people or use them to do more drug trafficking throughout a country. Have we ever heard this during Lao royal government?
2. Prostitution and sex slave on the rise throughout the country. Many bars, coffee shops, hotels, casino and all kind of activities to promote prostitution every where from country side to a major city. I guess when there's no regular job nor any employment can sustain and help its citizen then these people have no other choice just to sell their body for money. Was there anything like this during the Vietnam war?
3. Aids and sexual transmitted decease are on the rise in a great numbers and there's nothing to cure nor the government care to help eliminate these problems. This was none existence before 1975 nor even heard of.
4. Employment: There's more and more foreigners ownership of Laos land, building, Hotels, manufacturing, and some other industries. Because neo Lao/keo are so SALAD SONGSAI that allowed many foreigners to invade and take over Laos without any vision nor care about its own citizen. There's not enough Lao professional nor expertise in many fields that can run, support, nor sustain its profession.
5. Freedom/Human right: What is this? I guess there's none existence throughout Laos today. All citizen can only see but cannot say anything to government without being persecuted or sentence to jail for a long time. This way everyone is dumb and blind nor want to contests with government. There's no justice and no rights in anything.
6. Religion: there's no right to practice any religion only the neolao/keo religion only. what's neolao/keo religion??? It's only way to saying but not practice. No other religion allowed!!! many more and more different sect of Christianity had been persecuted and many churches had been destroyed. Buddhism doe not teach nor practice any violent nor killing...Only Neolao/keo religion allow that!!!!
7. Education: I guess the leaders only finished grade school level and why is that so important for its citizen. When compare to the last three decades, many Laos leaders achieved and attained higher education degree from foreign countries and its education level is still somewhat competitive with neighboring countries. But nowadays.... Dongdok degree is nothing compare to high school diploma in modern country. by the way, the so called leader or ministry of various department are buying a fake diploma from Thailand or Vietnam. I guess for the most modern country would seek advance degree in USA, England, or France. But only the Salad Songsai neo lao/keo want to go to Vietnam for advance degree. The difference is that when you earned any degree from USA education institution you can work any where in the world. I guess you can understand why USA is so powerful around the world.
8. Corruption: This is the worse of all time in Laos history and it's a mind boggling that neo Lao/keo government had surpassed Columbia in this category. I think this is just make me so sick and disgust when I hear about this and it's so obvious from top to the bottom. The average income is still far below the poverty level in modern country living standard, but the neolao/keo party members had more money than you can imagine because of corruption. They (neolao/keo) will sell everything that they can get their hands on from natural resources, land, and much more for personal gain and continue to corrupt.
I guess these topics are enough for all of us to digest and sure hope everyone should bring these up and tell the entire world about these evil neolao/keo regime had done and will continue to destroy and persecuted its own citizen. Moreover, Laos will be be wipe out from a world map soon if these evil neolao/keo will continue to run the country. As for khon Lao around the world, we must wake up and united and work together no matter what group, political party, nor race, nor background. If we are still fighting among ourselves, show off, competition, and think you know more than anyone else...then we are definitely walking in circle with no point to begin nor direction to go... Let's join in hand and share the vision, knowledge, lessons learn, and move on with a better thing and healthy future. Laos kingdom has 68 tribes, 3 main groups, Lao theung, Lao Loum, and Lao soung. United we stand and can do much more wonder.... Please excuse myself if I may have say many thing that might have offend some one here...But I think there's more young mind like myself that can participate and help reunited our people and let's do it with pride and dignity as khon Lao. Please share your visions and plans to help us understand where we are coming from and where we are going.
THE GOOD THING IS TO ASK ALL LAO NORK TO SEND MESSAGES TO RFA, C/O MAYSOULY WHO WAS READING THAT LETTER ON AIR TO WORLD PUBLIC, COMPLAINING THAT RFA ADMINISTRATION MUST BE RESPONSIBLE TO READ THAT LETTER AND DEMANDING,THE DIRECTOR OF RFA AND ALSO NANG MAYSOULY TO ASK FOR EXCUSES TO ALL LAO NORK...BECAUSE OF MANY REASONS AS FOLLOWS: 1.. RFA IS A NON PROFIT ORG.AND RECEIVED THE FUNDING FROM PUBLIC OR PRIVATE ORGANIZATIONS IN USA AND THAT FUNDING IS COMING FROM PEOPLE TAXES.. 2. THE MAIN GOAL OF RFA IS SERVING LAO PEOPLE IN GENERAL AND TARGETING TO FREE ASIA, DELIVERING FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY TO LAO PEOPLE IN THE WORLD... 3. THE RFA ADMINISTRATION IS RECEIVING THE SALARY FROM THIS ORGANIZATION AND MUST SERVE THE PEOPLE WHAO HAS PAID TAXES TO BENEFIT THEM FOR YEARS... 4. THE SPP LAO GOVERNMENT AND LAO PEOPLE HAVE NOT CONTRIBUTED TO THE RFA FUNDING AND HAVING NO RIGHTS TO BLAME OR DISCRIMINATION THE LAO NORK WHO BECAME THE US CITIZENS AND PAYING TAXES TO SUPPORT THEIR AGENCY... 5. ALL RFA STAFFS MUST REVIEW AGAIN THEIR POLICIES AND THEIR JOB DESCRIPTIONS, SEE WHAT THEY CAN DO AND WHAT THEY CANNOT DO....AND SEE WHAT ARE THEIR GOALS AND THEIR MAIN TARGETS.....IF NOT ALL LAO NORK MUST SEND A COMPLAINT OR PETITION TO THE US GOVERNMENT OR CONGRESS TO CANCEL THEIR SERVICES AND THEIR FUNDING IN THE DAYS TO COME... ANY COMMENTS,PLEASE LET ME KNOW... HAKPHENG,
In the 1970's and 1980's the Soviet Union seemed to be one of the most stable political units in the world. In international politics the Soviet Union was very strong and seemed only to be getting stronger. It was, for example, securing political client states in Africa. The Western powers believed this image was valid. But in the Soviet Union few things were really what they seemed to be.
Leonid Brezvev In 1974 there was a power summit meeting near Vladivostok, U.S.S.R. between President Gerald Ford of the U.S. and Leonid Breznev of the Soviet Union. After the meeting Breznev went to his waiting train. The train however did not depart. The journalist and others who traveling on the train with Breznev were not told the reason for the delay even though the delay extended through the night. The next day they were told that Brezvev had suffered a stroke. Breznev's personal physician, Mikhail Kosarev, said the problem was an overdose of his sleeping medication rather than a stroke. The symptoms were similar, slurred speech and muscle weakness. Kosareve said that if effect Breznev was a drug addict during this period and had merely miscalculated his dosage. It was no uncommon for the top leadership in totalitarian states to be addicted to sleeping potions. Mao and the top leadership of the Communist Party in China had been addicted to sleeping pills by the time of the Long March. Totalitarian leaders have a hard time relaxing and getting to sleep.
There were many economic problems for the Soviet Stalinist system. One very general problem was the the lack of incentives for productivity. As anonymous Soviet citizen said They pretent to pay us and we pretend to work. The Russian economist, Grigory Yavlinsky, who ultimately became an important advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev, became convinced to the need for reform when he investigated the low productivity in the Soviet mines. He found the miners were not working because they had no incentives to work. Said Yavlinsky The Soviet system is not working because the workers are not working.
But there were more immediate causes for the collapse. In the middle 1980's about seventy percent of the industrial output of the Soviet Union was going to the military. Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB official who defected to Britain, asserted that at least one third of the total output was going to the military. British intelligence could not believe such a high figure but later Western intelligence sources estimated that it was at least fifty percent. One can only imagine what a severe shortages of industrial goods there were for the rest of the economy. In the U.S. the Reagan Administration increased the budget for the military and presented the possibility that it would implement a Star Wars antiballistic missile system. To maintain a parity with the U.S. under those developments would have required an even larger share of industrial ouput going to the military. The planners and decision-makers had to face the fact that it was economically impossible for the Soviet Union to increase the share of its output going to the military. The Soviet authorities then ended the arms race and called off the Cold War. When the justification of an external threat was removed there was no reason for the Russian public to toleratel the totalitarian regime and the political system fell apart. The agreement between Ford and Breznev led on to the Statregic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). While Soviet negotiators were talking detente with the West in Helsinki, Finland the Soviet military were installing medium range nuclear missiles, the SS20's. Only the inner circle of the military-industrial complex knew about those missiles. The SALT negotiators did not know; even the higher levels of the KGB intelligence staff did not know. The negotiators and the KGB only found out about the SS20's when Western sources publicized their siting. The U.S. and western Europe reacted to the SS20's by installing Pershing and Cruise missiles in western Europe. The Soviet reacted to those sitings by starting a peace movement in western Europe to protest the siting of the Pershing and Cruise missiles. Elena Bonner, a human rights advocate in the Soviet Union and the wife of Andrei Sakharov, characterized the peace movement as a movement of Soviet Con Artists. She also characterized the SALT agreements, which the West was proud of, as an agreement in which 300 million people who were living in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe were handled over forever to totalitarianism. What the West got for the Stategic Arms Limitation was a Soviet agreement to honor a set of human rights measures, the so-called Third Basket. From documents that were later found after the fall of the Soviet Union is that the Soviet leaders had no intention of honoring those agreements concerning human rights. The Soviet leaders concentrated on amassing military power. By 1970 the Soviet Union had achieved parity with the United States in military power. They managed to do this even though their military budget was supposedly on one half or one third of that of the U.S. But achieving parity with the U.S. was not an end to the arms buildup. Soviet leader Andropov suggested that the Soviet Union should strive for parity with the combined forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) plus China. Part of the military buildup of the Soviet Union was in tens of thousands of tanks. They had 25 thousand in East Germany alone. They were very pleased and confident with this vast superiority in tanks. This confidence held up until President Jimmy Carter announced that he was considering the development of a neutron bomb. The neutron bomb would produce armor-piercing radiation which would kill the crews of tanks but leave the tanks unharmed. This would have made the tank force of the Soviet Union not only ineffective but a danger since enemies could take over the tanks after the crews had been killed and use them against the Soviet Union. The Soviets organized an international peace campaign against the neutron bomb. It was run by the KGB office near Moscow. It was effective enough to get Jimmy Carter to cancel the development of the neutron bomb only a year after he announced its consideration. Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980 and he never believed detente with the Soviet Union was feasible or desirable. In July of 1983 he made a speech in which he labeled the Soviet Union a evil empire. The Soviet Union the leaders of the military-industrial complex were overjoyed. They immediately received and increase in budget. The budget increase for the military came at the expense of investment in the rest of the economy. Nikolai Leonov, a general in the KGB, described the result as follows: First there was a visible decline in the rate of growth, then its complete stagnation. There was a drawnout, deepening and almost insurmountable crisis in agriculture. It was a frightening and truly terrifying sign of crisis. It was these factors that were crucial in the transition to perestroika. The Reagan Administration justifiably gets credit for destroying the Evil Empire, but the irony of it is that the successful strategy arose as a result of a blunder rather than rational decision. David Stockman tells us that the dramatic increase in the defense budget arose as a result of a mistake. David Stockman was the head of the Office of Management and the Budget (OMB). The OMB practice in putting together a budget was first to make forecasts of the budget figures assuming no change in price levels; i.e., no inflation. An estimate was made of the rate of price increase and the constant price projections would be multiplied by an appropriate factor for inflation. Stockman says that in one year the inflation-adjusted figure for the Defense Department budget was mistakenly reported as the constant price figure. The mistaken figures were released before the mistake was caught. When OMB discovered the mistake the Reagan Administration tried to tell the Pentagon that a correction would have to be made. The Pentagon people said, in effect, "No way! If you adjust that published figure we will tell people that you are cutting the Defense budget." The political fallout would have been too great so the Reagan Administration sanctioned the accceptance of the published figure and made a second inflation adjustment. This was why there was such a big increase in the Defense budget. Many scientist doubted that the Star Wars anti-missile system would work. The Soviet strategic planners had to presume that it would work. Gorbachev's Glasnost and Perestroika When Mikhail Gorbachev was assured of gaining control of the Communist Party and the government of the Soviet Union he sought out Aleksandr Yakoblev, a specialist in North American affairs, to be one of his closest political advisors. Gorbachev and Yakoblev did not intend to dismantle the communist system. Instead they intended to make it work. Years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Yakoblev said in an interview It seemed to us that all we had to do was to remove some prohibitions, some brakes. Free everything up and it would start to work. It would work. There is a good engine there. It has got a bit old and rusty. It needs oil. Then just press the starter and it will set off down the track. And we went along under this illusion for one and half to two years. But as soon as we began to make really radical reforms, in foreign policy say, we immediately came up against the resistance of the system, that is the military-industrial complex, the central core of the system. It began to resist. And that is when we began to understand that if we wanted radical reform we would inevitably come up against the resistance of the system. And that is what happened. And from that moment on people began to say that the system is unreformable and the Party is unreformable. Although there did remain some illusions, some hopes, that it could all be done without major conflicts. Andrei Grachev, the Deputy Head of the Intelligence Department of the Central Committee, summed up the denouement of the downfall quite cogently: Gorbachev actually put the sort of final blow to the resistance of the Soviet Union by killing the fear of the people. It was still that this country was governed and kept together, as a structure, as a government structure, by the fear from Stalinist times. The other thing that was keeping this country together wa the invented outside threat. So Gorbachev's foreign policy [which] confirmed to the people that there was no danger from the outside, actually played a bad or a good joke with his country because then it did not have any particular reason to keep the structure of this camp. And then it fell apart. But there was a more immediate explanation for the collapse of the Soviet Union provided by Yegor Gaidar, who had been acting prime minister of Russia from June of 1992 to December of 1992 and a key figure in the transformation of the Russian economy. In his last work, Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia, published in 2007 Gaidar provides a powerful explanation for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Soviet agriculture had stagnated in the 1980's but the demand for grain in the cities was increasing. It was necessary to buy grain in the international market. While the price of petroleum was high it was feasible to finance the purchase of grain from internal sources. When the price of petroleum fell in the last 1980's the Soviet Union needed to borrow the funds from Western banks to purchase the needed grain. This severely restricted the international activities of the Soviet Union. It could not send in Soviet troops to put down the rebellions against communism in Eastern Europe because such an action would have resulted in a refusal of Western sources to lend the money needed. Likewise the attempted coup d'état was doomed to failure because the coup leaders would not have been able to borrow the funds needed to stave off starvation in the major cities. Although Gaidar's book does not delve into the reason for the decline in petroleum prices in the late 1980's there is evidence that this occurred because of a conspiracy between the American Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) the leaders of Saudi Arabia to punish the Soviet Union for its invasion of Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia increased its production of petroleum drastically and consequently the price of petroleum fell. The supposedly progressive system of socialism actually was a replication of feudalism in that was the absence of personal freedom of the common people and also in that the core of structure was an elite oriented toward militarism. The common people, the workers, were treated like serfs and slaves: they were given the necessities of food, shelter, clothing, transportation and medical care but little else. This is the same regime that prevailed under slavery.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: toukhaty@hotmail.com To: laosnetworkroom@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: Laos the promised land for investors Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:35:44 +1100
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:08:53 -0600 From: specom2009@comcast.net To: laosnetworkroom@googlegroups.com Subject: Laos the promised land for investors
Laos the promised land for investors http://vietnambusiness.asia/laos-the-promised-land-for-investors/
Sabaiidee Phinong Lao nok Lao leaders thung laii, I would like to share this comment that was originally posted in laohomelaoactiveboard website but unfortunately it has been deleted by the owner. But i wanted to share and warn all lao nok leaders about keo-deng vietnameese commuist lackeys that are blending in with us right now. They are nobody other than than Bouaruoy and than Sounthala. Both of these men worked for communist and are fighting with anybody who is in their way to protect their interest and their rank their fame. These two guys sold us out, sold our names, sold our informations. Everyone in overseas are walking in the same path except these two including nang Norkham from France. Please take a close look at them and reconsider again. They are not true patroits or nationalists. They are out here to destroy us. They have nothing to loose during the fall of Laos in 1975. because they are originally from Ubon Thailand who migrate to Laos in the 60s. All their families did not get killed, all their properties did not get stolen because they are from Thailand. These people are working both for Thaksin and SPPL. maa pan hup sai keo-deng..kii kar thard siam(thai slave) Please beware of these doggies. Teuane ma douy khouam wung dee. P.S..he wrote a letter to lao nok leades in Australia ask all organizations to support and sign their names with him. he including nang ong karn khong nang Vanida from France in his letter. he also sent the history book that he wrote. even for free. people in here still don't want them because it is not correct. and how can it be correct when the person who wrote it is not true khon lao. he doesn't know lao history. i have alot of letters from him lying including asking for money for human rights and i will keep you posted. ນັກ ການເມືອງ ຫລື ນັກກວນເມືອງ ກັນແທ້?
C O M M U N I Q U E on the occasion of the « International Day of the Freedom of the Press » : May O3 , 2012
All over the world , May 03 is the occasion to inform the public on the violations of the freedom of expression and recall to it that numerous journalists have run a risk for death and prison in binging violations to their daily news.
Appointed Secretary general of « People’s Revolutionary Party » at the 9th Congress in April 2011 and Chief State ; Comrade Choummaly Sayasone has not altered the country’s ideological line. All media remain under control of the Party.
At time when the international situation is faced with profound political changes, Laos fondamentally remains a marxist-leninist dictatorship where the single Party (communist People’s Revolutionary Party) undeservedly governs the country and foreign Press is prohibited , prisonners of opinion are still always incarcerated without trial . The press is controlled by the Party-State , several opposition journalists are always imprisoned without trial and inhumanly treated . The repression of press liberty affects also the foreign journalists , these people are supervised by strict regulation relating to their movement , their interviews, etc…They are constantly followed and are unable to carry through their task.
The People’s marxist-leninst Revolutionary Party holds its influence on the medias of the country and does n’t tolerate any critics . On can find in the laotian press the identical articles, written by official Press Agency KPL (KhaoSane Pathet Lao) and the jounal of the Party ( Paxaxon or People) or by the civil-servants of the Ministry of Information. All the journalists are employers of this Ministry and the majority between them are also members of the Party . There is no independant newspaper.
The detention and the arbitrary accusations issued against Thongpaseuth Keuakoun, leader of the « October 1999 Movement », author of numerous articles and satirical tracts on the situation of Laos and the necessity of democratic reform, along with this friends : SengAloun Phengphanh ; Bouavanh Chanmanivong, Khamphouvieng Sisa-At and Keochay prove more than ever the importance of the International Day of the Press that we are celebrating today May 03 . Finally, we are always without news about the leaders of the October 1999 Movement (Sisa-At died in prison in 2001 after being tortured and ill-treatment). We strongly urges appeal to the communists Autorities of Vientiane to release immediately these prisoners of conscience , well as the 12 people arrested in 2009 during the « Sea Games » and 25 people arrested just before of the festival of « Thatluang » in 2011 .
Accordance with the interests of the nation and to meet the most fervent legitimate aspirations of the people’s Lao , the Lao National Council for Democracy, composed of democratic forces and representatives of the Opposition to all forms of dictatorship, the struggle for democracy, freedom, reconciliation and human rights, strongly urges :
1-the release without conditions of the prisoners of conscience incarcerated without judgment and inhumanly treated and this , without any reprisals ,
2-the freedom of speech, demonstration and press ; all the patriotic parties and all organizations without distinction of political tendency are free to carry on their activities ;
3-the cessation of all acts of violence and arbitrary arrests committed against all facts to Lao Patriots peacefully claiming their views on social justice, freedom , democracy and the multiparty ,
4-the immediat stop of the repression of religous minorities, including Christians ,
5-the cessation of torture, inhuman treatment in prisons and detention camps
6-the cessation to persecution of ethnic minorities, particular the Lao-Hmong minority ,
7-the organisation of a constructive dialogue between Authorities of Vientiane and the Lao representatives of democratic movements abroad, wishing to participate in rebuilding their homeland in the rule of law.
The Lao National Council for Democracy remains committed to ending all forms of dictatorship in Laos and that by peacefull actions, and is cooperating fully and with the same objective . We urge all Lao to work in solidarity and to openly claim to right to live in a lao democratic and free society .
ພວກໂຈນຫ້ນາຫມາຊາດຊາດຊັ່ວຢູ່ໄດ້ກັບການຂໍທານສັງຄົມໂລກ ແດກຫ່າມາໄດ້37ປິແລ້ວເທົ້ານັ້ນ Amélioration de la station routière de la capitale
(KPL)-- L’entreprise d’Etatdes bus de Vientianelanceun projet d’amélioration de la station routière située à côté du Talat Sao. L’objectif est de pouvoir accueillir l’arrivée des 42 nouveaux bus offerts par le gouvernement du Japon.
Ces travaux seront assurés parl'entreprise de co...nstruction Chitchaleun après que celle-ci ait obtenu l’autorisation des autorités de Vientiane.
Les plans pour la nouvelle gare routière sont encore en discussion entre les différents secteurs car pour le moment on ne sait pas encore quand les travaux commenceront, a confié le directeur de l’ entreprise des bus de Vientiane, M. Khamphoune
« Un bâtiment de huit étages sera construit sur le site de la station routière actuelle de la capitale. Le rez-de-chaussée servira de station de bus, les deuxième et troisième étages seront utilisés pour le stationnement des voitures privées, et les autres étages abriteront des magasins et autres points de vente commerciaux », a-t-il précisé. Le directeur adjoint de la station a ajouté aussi que l'entreprise aura une concession de 70 ans pour exploiter le nouveau bâtiment.
« Nous sommes en train de chercher deux endroits pour servir de stations de bus provisoires pendant les travaux. Il est probable qu’on trouve une parcelle de terrain située dans la zone du kilomètre 5 vers le village de Chommany, dans l’arrondissement de Xaysettha ou dans un autre endroit situé près de l’ancienne gare routière du Nord au village de Nakham, de l’arrondissement de Sikhottabong.»
La nouvelle gare routière du Nord est située actuellement au village de Dongnathong, dans l’arrondissement de Sikhottabong.
La remise des 42 bus du gouvernement japonais aidera à réduire les embouteillages et les émissions de gaz carbonique ainsi que le nombre de motocyclettes et de voitures sur la route. Cela permettra d’encourager les citadins à opter pour les transports en commun.
Depuis 1988, le Japon a soutenu le secteur des transports du Laos. En 2 000, le gouvernement japonais a fourni 56 bus au Laos.
Les embouteillages sont de plus en plus fréquents à Vientiane malgré la taille de la ville, et le nombre de personnes utilisant les transports publics restent faible.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ath Dhatpa To: "laosnetworkroom@googlegroups.com" Sent: Saturday, May 5, 2012 6:42 AM Subject: Re: 264 ) ລັກສນະ ຂອງຜູ້ນໍາໃຊ້ໜ້າທີ່ສໍ້ໂກງTo know about Corrupt leadership
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: SPECOM To: Laosnetworkroom Sent: Saturday, 5 May 2012 3:21 AM Subject: To know about Corrupt leadership
déja les médias se contredisent : entre Hollande et Sarkosy, les écarts se réduisent :
après le primaire socialiste H. 55% contre S.45%, au 6 mai 2012 avant le 1er tour présidentiel, H.54% contre S.46% au 6 mai 2012 après le 1er tour présidentiel , H.53,5% contre S.46,5% après le 2 mai 2012 disant que H. prside le débat, mais H.53% contre S.47% au 2ème tour du 6 mai 2012 aujourd'hui, samedi 5 mai 2012 avant minuit, fin de campagne, les médias avec les sondés donnent toujours Hollande ganant avec 52,5% contre Sarkosy 47,5% ! demain le 6 mai 2012 avant 20h00 , quel sera le résultat final ? est-ce sera comme comme celui du 1er tour présidentiel :
28% Hollande, 27% Sarkosy, 18% Le Pen, 11% Mélanchon, 9% Bayrou.... Ah le sondage s'est complètement trompé !!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: SPECOM To: Laosnetworkroom Sent: Saturday, 5 May 2012 3:21 AM Subject: To know about Corrupt leadership
Hepatitis C Drug Can Cause Depression May 7, 2012 There’s a high rate of depression among patients with hepatitis C, but a standard treatment for the disease includes a drug, interferon, that can cause depression. In a review article, researchers tackle the complexities of diagnosing and managing depression before and after initiating treatment with interferon. Dr. Murali S. Rao of Loyola University Medical Center is a co-author of the study, published in the International Journal of Interferon, Cytokine and Mediator Research. “Depression is a relatively frequent and potentially serious complication of interferon therapy for hepatitis C virus infection,” the researchers write. “However, other etiologies [causes] of depression may coexist and have to be carefully excluded.” Hepatitis C is the most common chronic blood-borne infection in the United States. At least 4 million people have been exposed and 3.2 million are chronic carriers. The drugs ribavirin and pegylated interferon are mainstay treatments. Pegylated interferon can help relieve muscle and joint pain and reduce the disabling fatigue. But a well-established side effect of interferon is depression of variable severity — including suicidal thoughts. The prevalence of depression among hepatitis C patients receiving interferon has been reported to be between 10 percent and 40 percent, depending on the screening method used. One of the main concerns in treating hepatitis C patients is the risk of suicide, especially since many patients already are depressed before beginning therapy. Patients who have a personal or family history of a serious mood disorder, depression, suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts “should be carefully interviewed and referred to a specialist for assessment of suicide risk and treatment of the underlying disorder before treatment with interferon can be considered,” the authors write. The SSRI class of antidepressants, such as citalopram (brand name, Celexa), have been shown to be effective in treating depression in hepatitis patients treated with interferon. The related SNRI class of antidepressants, such as milnacipran (Savella), also can reduce depressive symptoms in patients taking interferon. But there have been conflicting results in studies on whether giving antidepressants before starting interferon can prevent depression, the authors write. Interferon can affect the level of serotonin, a compound that is responsible in part for regulating mood and other brain functions. This may be the reason why antidepressants don’t always work in patients who take interferon, the authors write.
Francois Hollande: The New French President And India – OpEd
Written by: B. Raman
May 7, 2012 When Francois Mitterand, the then leader of the French Socialist Party, was elected the French President in 1981 defeating Giscard d’Estaing from the right of the political spectrum, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, had reasons to be concerned.
The French Right always had greater warmth for her and India than the French Left. She remembered how Georges Pompidou, who succeeded Gen. Charles de Gaulle as the President, and his Minister For Culture, Andre Malraux, stood by her and India during the exodus of millions of refugees from the then East Pakistan to India in 1971.Pompidou sent Malraux on a visit to the refugee camps as a mark of humanitarian solidarity with India.
She also remembered with gratitude the first steps towards a strategic partnership between India and France under the Presidentship of Giscard. The two flagships of this partnership were the close Indo-French co-operation in the nuclear and space fields and the co-operation between the external intelligence agencies of the two countries in collecting intelligence about developments in the Indian Ocean region.
She also remembered —but with embarrassment— how the French Left—particularly the Socialists— was embarrassed by her proclamation of the Emergency in 1975 and went out of its way to help George Fernandes and his wife Leela when they tried to evade arrests by her Government. The French Right too was embarrassed by the Emergency, but it did not show it in public and did not allow it to affect the relations between the two countries.
Of the French leftist parties, only the Communist Party, taking its cue from Moscow, kept quiet on the Emergency, but the Socialist Party made no secret of its discomfort over the violations of human rights and the trampling of democracy by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency.
It was, therefore, not surprising that when Mitterand became the President in 1981, there was an ill-concealed unease in both New Delhi and Paris as to what impact the lingering bad taste of the Emergency in the French Socialist Party circles would have on bilateral relations. It spoke well of the political maturity of both Indira Gandhi and Mitterand that they did not allow this to come in the way of the developing bilateral relations. But there was a difference.
Warmth and substance were the defining characteristics of Indo-French relations under Pompidou and Giscard. The warmth continued under Mitterand too, but the substance became less noticeable. The co-operation in the nuclear and space fields continued, but the intelligence co-operation tended to get diluted.
Mitterand developed a good personal equation with Indira and Rajiv both of whom paid successful visits to France which were reciprocated by him. Mitterrand understood the importance of India as a market for the French aircraft industry. He was attracted and he admired the Indian democracy. He was uncomfortable with what was going on in China particularly after the Tianenmen Square massacre. India stood as a shining light in comparison with China.
But, still, he was not convinced of the importance of a substantial strategic relationship between India and France. In bilateral relations, warmth alone is not sufficient. Without substance, warmth serves only a limited purpose.
Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy who succeeded Mitterand after he completed his term in 1995, restored the badly-needed substance to Indo-French relations. They attached as much importance to India as they did to China—if not more. They supported India’s aspirations in the nuclear and space fields. Chirac refrained from creating difficulties for India after it carried out the 1998 nuclear tests.
Sarkozy became a very unpopular leader in France. He was hated because of his perceived arrogance, lack of sensitivity and other negative qualities. It is said that Francois Hollande has now been elected by the French people as the President not because he is Hollande, but because he is not Sarkozy.
But, Hollande is an unknown quantity even to the French. He has hardly held any important Government position. He has hardly ever made any important political statements on international relations. He has never been known as a man of vision. He is a good man, a noble soul. But that alone is not sufficient in leadership. The ability to think far ahead and to give practical shape to one’s thinking is important too.
He is equally an unknown quantity for us in India too. The Fench are a warm people—unusually warm if you can speak to them in French. One can expect with hope that he will be warm towards India like Sarkozy, Chirac, Mitterand, Giscard and Pompidou. But will he neglect the substance that was the characteristic of the days of the Right and let it be frittered away due to less interest in India?
François Hollande: le nouveau président français et l'Inde - OpEd Écrit par: B. Raman
7 mai 2012
Lorsque François Mitterrand, alors chef du Parti socialiste français, a été élu le président français en 1981 battant Giscard d'Estaing à partir de la droite de l'échiquier politique, Indira Gandhi, alors Premier ministre, avait des raisons d'être inquiets.
La droite française a toujours eu plus de chaleur pour elle et l'Inde que la gauche française. Elle se souvenait de la façon dont Georges Pompidou, qui a succédé à Gen Charles de Gaulle en tant que président, et son ministre de la Culture, André Malraux, se tenait près d'elle et l'Inde lors de l'exode de millions de réfugiés du Pakistan oriental en Inde en 1971.Pompidou envoyé Malraux lors d'une visite aux camps de réfugiés comme une marque de solidarité humanitaire avec l'Inde.
Elle se souvient aussi avec gratitude les premiers pas vers un partenariat stratégique entre l'Inde et la France sous la présidence du Giscard. Les deux fleurons de ce partenariat ont été la fin indo-français de coopération dans les domaines nucléaire et de l'espace et la coopération entre les agences de renseignement extérieurs des deux pays dans la collecte de renseignements sur les développements dans la région Océan Indien.
Elle se souvenait aussi, mais avec embarras-faire de la gauche française, en particulier les socialistes-a été gênée par sa proclamation de l'état d'urgence en 1975 et sortit de sa façon d'aider George Fernandes et son épouse Leela quand ils ont essayé de se soustraire à des arrestations par son gouvernement . La droite française a été également gênés par l'état d'urgence, mais il ne le montre pas en public et ne lui permettent pas d'affecter les relations entre les deux pays.
Parmi les partis français de gauche, seul le Parti communiste, s'inspirant de Moscou, gardé le silence sur l'état d'urgence, mais le Parti socialiste n'a pas caché son malaise face aux violations des droits de l'homme et le piétinement de la démocratie par Indira Gandhi lors de l'état d'urgence .
Il était, par conséquent, pas surprenant que, lorsque Mitterrand est devenu le président en 1981, il y avait un malaise mal dissimulé à New Delhi et Paris quant à ce que l'impact le goût persistant de la mauvaise urgence dans les cercles du Parti Socialiste Français aurait sur les relations bilatérales relations. Il a bien parlé de la maturité politique des deux Indira Gandhi et Mitterrand qu'ils ne permettent pas de venir dans la voie de développement des relations bilatérales. Mais il y avait une différence.
Chaleur et de la substance sont les caractéristiques qui définissent les relations franco-indo sous Pompidou et Giscard. La chaleur a continué sous Mitterrand aussi, mais la substance est devenue moins visible. La coopération dans les domaines nucléaire et spatial a continué, mais l'intelligence coopération tend à se diluer.
Mitterrand mis au point une équation personnelle de qualité avec Indira et Rajiv qui ont tous deux effectué des visites réussies en France qui ont été réciproque de la part lui.Mitterrand a compris l'importance de l'Inde comme un marché pour l'industrie aéronautique française. Il a été attiré et il admirait la démocratie indienne. Il était mal à l'aise avec ce qui se passait en Chine en particulier après le massacre Tianenmen Square. L'Inde était comme une lumière qui brille en comparaison avec la Chine.
Mais, encore, il n'était pas convaincu de l'importance d'une relation substantielle stratégique entre l'Inde et la France. Dans les relations bilatérales, de la chaleur seule ne suffit pas. Sans substance, la chaleur ne sert qu'à des fins limitées.
Jacques Chirac et Nicolas Sarkozy qui a succédé à Mitterrand, après avoir terminé son mandat en 1995, restauré la substance mal nécessaire à l'indo-français des relations.Ils ont attaché autant d'importance à l'Inde comme ils l'ont fait à la Chine, sinon plus. Ils ont soutenu les aspirations de l'Inde dans les domaines nucléaire et l'espace. Chirac s'est abstenu de créer des difficultés pour l'Inde après avoir effectué les essais nucléaires de 1998.
Sarkozy est devenu un chef de file très impopulaire en France. Il était haï à cause de son arrogance perçue, manque de sensibilité et d'autres qualités négatives. Il est dit que François Hollande a été élu par le peuple français que le Président n'est pas parce qu'il est Hollande, mais parce qu'il n'est pas Sarkozy.
Mais, Hollande est une quantité inconnue, même pour les Français. Il n'a guère occupé un poste important du gouvernement. Il n'a pratiquement jamais fait de déclarations politiques importantes sur les relations internationales. Il n'a jamais été connu comme un homme de vision. Il est un homme bon, une âme noble. Mais cela seul ne suffit pas en matière de leadership. La capacité de penser loin et de donner forme concrète à sa pensée est important aussi.
Il est également une quantité inconnue pour nous en Inde aussi. Le Fench sont un accueil chaleureux des gens-inhabituellement chaud si vous pouvez leur parler en français. On peut s'attendre à de l'espoir qu'il sera chaud vers l'Inde, comme Sarkozy, Chirac, Mitterrand, Giscard et Pompidou. Mais sera-t négliger la substance qui était la caractéristique des jours de la droite et laissez-le être gaspillé en raison de moins d'intérêt en Inde?
Asian American Air Force Pilot is the Real ‘Top Gun’ At 5 feet 3 inches tall Kari Asai fell one inch short of the pilot height requirement, but that hasn’t stopped her from pursuing a career as a navigator in the U.S. Air Force.
When people ask her what she does for a living Kari Asai says, ‘Have you seen “Top Gun”? OK, I’m Goose.’
By Christine McFadden, Correspondent November 2, 2011 Tweet Facebook Yahoo! Email ShareThis Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version More Photos »
By the time Kari Asai was three years old, she had already asserted her independence. It became apparent one day when her mother Jan was helping her get dressed.
“She looks at me and said, ‘I don’t need you,’” Jan said. “And I just went ‘Oh, ok.’ I just let her do her thing.”
Over two decades later, Kari, a half-Japanese Yonsei who graduated as a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) pilot with distinction, is stationed as a captain in the Air Force in Cambridge, England.
“I’m not surprised she’s as mentally strong as anybody I know,” said Jan.
With a family full of pilots — her maternal grandfather and maternal uncle were a former U.S. Air Force pilot and Thunderbird pilot, respectively — Kari was no stranger to the service.
“I would say it was probably a self-conscious motivator,” she said about growing up “in a house with a lot of pictures of planes.”
In the Air Force, Kari, 26, is often one of the few women among men.
“A quarter of airmen are women,” she said. “Once you get to aviation, it’s maybe 10 percent of them.”
But she’s used to that.
“I was probably a tomboy in the sense that I played soccer, baseball, taekwondo,” she said about her childhood. “It probably didn’t help that my mom gave me a bowl cut.”
Kari began the process of getting a pilot’s license when she was just 15. Now as a captain, she has already been deployed to Libya.
From Art Major to Air Force Captain
While attending high school in Vancouver, Wash., she applied for and won an Air Force ROTC scholarship. With the ROTC scholarship, she attended Washington State University to major in fine arts and minor in psychology and aerospace studies.
Both she and her older sister, Kristen, ended up pursuing radically different paths.
“I was the painter that became the fighter pilot, and she was the ballet dancer that became a lawyer,” she said.
Kari graduated with a 3.98 GPA in 2007 and earned ROTC distinction as the number one cadet for her region.
“Once I kind of got engaged in it, I realized that I really wanted to pursue a flying course at the Air Force,” she said.
While some people wait months after graduation before going active, Kari waited only a week before driving from Washington to Pensacola to become an officer. She completed her navigator training in two years with the Navy while attending flight school.
After getting her “wings”, she had top pick for which aircraft she wanted to be placed in. She chose the F-15.
“I think I chose it because I like the idea of a challenge. Going through flight school, it’s kind of the elite aircraft. It can bomb, do air-to-air engagements; you always have to be current in all these different ways to deploy.”
Kari then entered survival training in Pensacola, and completed two-month Fighter Fundamentals training in Mississippi where she learned basic fighting maneuvers.
“If you watch ‘Top Gun’, that’s what we learn,” she said about the 1986 movie.
She also endured “the centrifuge” at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico — the same one that potential astronauts have to survive.
We, the members of Royal of Laos government in exile RLGE cordially invite all fellows compatriots around the glob to set up Celebration party where you are living and perform Ceremony to remembrance our National Constitution created on May 11, 1947. and its 65th Anniversary that will be coming on May 11, 2012. The Celebration will create massive force to call for elimination of LPDR and Shadow Vietnamese installed government of LPRP and save the Royal of Laos and Royal Lao government that granted Independence by France in 1949. Call upon International Community to reconvene and revive Paris Peace Agreement Treaty Accords which it was violated by the Vietnam Communist and its lack key Communist LPDR AND ITS Lao People's Revolutionary Party's Vietnamese shadow government. Enjoy your Celebration Party, Save your birth land Nation of Royal of Laos from Vietnamese annexation. Lord of Buddha Bless you All, With Best regard. White Condor.
ບອກ ຊື່, ນາມສກຸນ, Email, Zip code > Create an Account And fill up the rest > every body can do it. We petition the Obama administration to: Seeking a release for Laotian political prisoners who were on street protest on October 26, 1999 in Vientiane, LAOS The Lao Students Movement for Democracy ran on street in Vientiane, Laos on October 26, 1999 for public demonstration and Lao Government put Misters Thongpaseuth KEUAKOUN, Seng-aloun PHENGPHANH, Bouavanh CHANMANIVONG, and KEOCHAY imprisoned.
Mrs. Kingkeo Phongsely, a Laotian human rights activist has been held in Laos on November 2, 2009 with no trial since.
We would like to ask US Government to do whatever it can to release these students, human rights activists and political prisoners in Laos.
Progress towards the MDGs in the Lao PDR MDG 1: Eradicate Poverty & Hunger Smiling Harvest Woman
Poverty in Lao PDR declined steadily from 46% to 33% during the decade 1992-2002and the country is on course to attain the MDG target of halving poverty by 2015. While the incidence of poverty has declined, and the poor are getting less poor on average, the share of the poorest quintile in national consumption fell from 9.6% to 8%. This suggests an increase in disparity during 1992-2002, thereby confirming evidence from other sources about increasing gap among the poor and the non-poor.
Food poverty declined faster than overall poverty between 1992/3 to 2002/3, and the average number of months without sufficient rice in villages dropped between 1997/8 to 3. Malnutrition remains a significant concern in Lao PDR. Estimates suggest that despite considerable efforts, 38% of children under five years of age are underweight. Chronic malnutrition or stunting remains a problem in Laos (affecting 41% of children under the age of five) and requires urgent attention by both government and the development community. As a first step, it is recommended to include stunting as an additional MDG indicator for Lao PDR to ensure constant monitoring and action. Traditional Lao Food
Following the widespread conviction that poverty can only be reduced if people have a decent and productive job, a new target on employment was added under MDG 1in 2006: Reaching full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.
Even though a significant slice of growth in the last two decades has originated from the non-agricultural sector, the overall structure of the workforce has scarcely altered. More than 80% of workers are still engaged in subsistence-oriented agriculture and allied activities. There is little impact of the high and sustained growth in recent years on the workforce (especially agrarian and unprotected urban sectors), where low skills and poor health are widely prevalent.
Meeting the targets: Continued poverty reduction in Lao PDR needs to have a strong focus on sustainable agriculture, rural employment and income generation, and promote alternative livelihoods and development of rural infrastructure. In 2003 agriculture still contributed approximately half of the total GDP and provided employment to 80% of the workforce. Over the last decade, agricultural growth averaged nearly 5% per year and was the most important driver in reducing rural poverty. Non-farm rural income opportunities are limited and agriculture’s importance to rural households is high.
To sustain the reductions in poverty, Lao PDR needs higher employment and higher unskilled wage-rates. Lao PDR has the potential for high rates of sustainable agricultural growth that are key to continued reduction of rural poverty, and aiming for a 5-6% annual rate in the next decade is reasonable. Achieving this will involve transitioning from past reliance on extensive growth to a future that will depend more on intensive sources of growth.
Poverty reduction is a necessary but not a sufficient condition to meet the targets on reducing malnutrition. Poverty reduction will not automatically result into an improved nutrient dietary intake. There is an urgent need for inter-sectoral policies to address both malnutrition and poverty in a comprehensive way. An inter-sectoral Nutrition Policy is being set up and acknowledges that nutrition is central in development and has listed ten main objectives for 2020.
Progress towards the MDGs in the Lao PDR MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education Questions at school.
Education is among the better performing sectors in Lao PDR as reflected in the continuous progress across all key indicators. Net enrolment rates in primary schools rose from 58% of primary school-age children in 1991to 84% in 2005. Progress in retention of students at the primary level, however, is slow, like in other countries of a comparable level of human development. The primary completion rate increased by slightly more than 1percentage point per year during 1991-2003. At this rate the MDG target looks beyond reach. Literacy rates increased nationwide, and priority districts improved more than the national average. At primary age (basic education), literacy almost doubled from 31% to 58%. The increase in the secondary age groups was more modest.
National averages hide variations across regions and ethnic groups, and often provinces with low enrolment rates are the ones with high proportions of rural, poor and children of different ethnic groups. There are still considerable differences in literacy rates between ethnic groups. Hard at Study
Meeting the targets: Pushing up enrolment and literacy rates are usually the first policy interventions of any government. While progress on both these indicators has been satisfactory so far, reaching the last 15-20% of the population is always hard and will require additional effort and resources. It is also important to ensure that the government’s push toward attaining the MDG enrolment and literacy targets is such that it benefits all people regardless of their location, gender, ethnic background or wealth.
Effective public expenditure management reform is required to allocate adequate resources and infrastructure across provinces, for all pupils to complete the primary and lower secondary education and to improve the quality of education, develop a pool of trained teachers and improve curriculum to build its human resource capacity and extend educational opportunities to all. Special efforts need to be made to extend the benefits of education to the people without adequate access to basic education. Performance and retention rate in the ethnic area will improve if teachers who are not ethnic or local people know ethnic language and culture and actually TTC or PES or DES should provide the specific training for them. Multigrade teaching has been encouraged in the rural and remote areas. Improvement in enrolment rates needs to be combined with improvement in teacher training to ensure modern methods of teaching sciences, languages and technology.
Progress towards the MDGs in the Lao PDR MDG 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women Woman speaking to group.
In order to achieve gender equality, it is necessary, to place women’s empowerment at the center of national development plans. This includes ensuring that women and girls enjoy a set of basic human capabilities as measured by indicators on education, health, and nutrition; have equal opportunities to use or apply their basic capabilities, including in non-agricultural wage employment and political representation; and have reduced vulnerability to violence and abuse.
Elimination of gender disparity in education in Lao PDR has made slow progress. Fewer girls than boys are enrolled at all levels, and this share is even lower at the higher education levels. The number of girls per 100 boys in primary education has risen from 77 in 1991to 86 in 2006. Over the same period, indices for lower secondary education improved from 66% to 78%, for upper secondary from 56 to 74 and for tertiary from 49 to 62%. Low educational levels of girls adversely affect women’s prospects of non-agricultural wage employment. In the 10-year period (1995-2005) for which data is available, the share of women in wage employment increased less than 1percentage point per year, which is close to the rate at which girls narrowed the school enrolment gap. Because of the very slow pace at which the gender gap closes, achieving the MDG targets for elimination of gender disparity at all levels of education by 2015 seem ambitious. Young woman at Pi Mai
The picture is different, however, when it comes to women’s political representation. The proportion of women members of the national legislature tripled between 1990 and 2003 and is among the highest in the region. More analysis is needed to assess whether and to what extent policy priorities have shifted as a result, to focus more on benefits for women, children and families. The national trend of increased women’s representation has not yet been extended in equal measure to the sub-national levels, where the real rigidities on gender roles may lie.
Meeting the targets: Meeting the Goal 3 targets requires a better understanding at all levels of the dynamics that sustain and/or create gender inequalities; targeted policies, strategies, actions and re-prioritising public expenditure. And this, in turn, requires committed leadership and political will. As gender inequality is deeply rooted in entrenched attitudes, societal institutions and market forces, political commitment at the highest national level is essential to institute the policies that can trigger social change and to allocate the resources necessary to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The newly set up Lao National Commission for the Advancement in Women (LNCAW) provides an excellent opportunity for the government to mainstream gender issues across various sectors. Although the government has begun to collect data disaggregated by sex, there is a need to further pursue data collection and dissemination on gender issues, in order to better sensitize decision-makers and communities to the problems faced by the female population.
Dear Phinongs Ex-IRDA, We have a sad new to let you know that one of our Ex-IRDA in Namur Belgium as passed away on Sunday ,Mr.Dethnarong Pangnarinh (promotion 1971). May Lord Buddha bless his soul in heaven
Vientiane Land Prices Soar 2012-05-14 Real estate in the Lao capital explodes in value.
AFP Motorcyclists ride through downtown Vientiane, Feb. 29, 2008. Real estate prices are soaring in Laos’s capital, Vientiane, residents say, as the city develops at a rapid pace.
Land prices in Vientiane, the country’s economic center, have risen to over U.S. $2,500 per square meter in some areas, up to two hundred times the price in areas in the outskirts of the city.
Residents said prices in prime business areas of the capital were around U.S. $2,500 to $3,000 per square meter in January, but now they have climbed even higher.
The price per square meter is about the same as annual income of the average city resident, which city officials in April said was $2,750, according to the Vientiane Times newspaper.
By comparison, in residential areas of Vientiane, one square meter goes for between $500 and $700, and in rural areas nearby, between $15 and $50, sources said.
One city official said the prices are expected to keep rising.
“Due to economic growth, it is certain that the prices of land will not stop rising,” a land management official in Vientiane told RFA.
The swift increase in the value of real estate comes amid a new city development plan that officials outlined last year.
According to the plan, several new sub-centers will be created to expand the town and reduce traffic congestion in the city center, the Vientiane Times reported.
The plan will also help accommodate the city’s expanding population, currently at about 700,000 and expected to double by 2030, the paper said.
The city is on track to see economic growth of 12 percent this year—compared to 7.8 percent in the rest of the country—driven mostly by industrial development projects, Laos’s Planning and Investment Department said in April, according to the Vientiane Times.
Anticipating higher values, investors are scrambling to buy land for resale in areas where the government has planned to build new road and satellite cities, residents said. Compensation
But some people are being left behind in the real estate boom as they are pushed out of their homes to make room for development projects.
Since all land in Laos is owned by the state, some are left with little choice when the government chooses to use their land for a development project.
One resident of Vientiane prefecture’s Sikhottabong district, not far from the capital center, said that when she was told she had to move for a development project, the compensation she received from the state was inadequate.
“The appraisal committee estimate of the price of my land was too low,” she said.
“My land, I think it should have cost between U.S. $100 and $200 per square meter, [since] it is along the road, but they give me only 300 Thai baht [U.S. $10] per square meter,” she said.
Her compensation was also slow in coming, she said.
“I did not receive the compensation yet… They said they will look for new piece of land for me somewhere else to exchange mine, but so far I have not received yet,” she said.
Reported by Krongkran Koyanakkul and Waroonsiri Sungsuwan for RFA’s Lao service. Translated by Somnet Inthapannha. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
From: Ath Dhatpa To: Laosnetwork Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2012 4:36 AM Subject: 271 ) ທໍາການ ທັກທ້ວງຜ່ານຜູ້ແທນຂອງປະເທດເຮົາເອງທີ່ເຮົາອາໃສຢູ່....ໃນປະເດັນ ມະນຸສຍະທັມ
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Last update 19/05/2012 08:00:00 AM (GMT+7) Vietnam-Laos special friendship VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam-Laos friendship is proven very clearly at the Prince Souphanouvong (late Lao President) Museum in Vientiane, Laos. a
President Ho Chi Minh took photo with Ms. Ky Nam and her children.
The most respected memories of late President, Prince Souphanouvong are related to President Ho Chi Minh and Vietnam. The first photo that Prince Souphanouvong taken with President Ho Chi Minh is placed next to pictures of the prince’s family.
That is the picture which was shot on September 4, 1945. After the August Revolution, Prince Souphanouvong was a bridge-road engineer and was working in Vietnam’s Vinh City when he was requested by his brother to come back home to take care state affairs.
According to Mr. To Huy Rua, head of the Central Party Organization Committee, President Ho Chi Minh invited Prince Souphanouvong to Hanoi to discuss alliance between Vietnam and Laos.
That historical meeting was the turning point in the history of Vietnam-Laos relationships. Prince Souphanouvong joined the Indochina Communist Party and began his revolutionary career.
According to the museum’s guide, in that meeting, President Ho Chi Minh and Prince Souphanouvong agreed with each other about many important issues related to the two countries. President Ho invited the prince and his wife, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ky Nam, a Vietnamese, to have meal with him.
The meal only had fish, salted shredded meat and boiled spinach with soybean jam. Perhaps after this meeting, Prince Souphanouvong turned from a prince, a patriotic intellectual into a revolutionist and then a communist.
Four years later, in 1949, Prince Souphanouvong returned to Vietnam to see President Ho in Tuyen Quang province.
The museum used to be the house of Prince Souphanouvong. On the second floor, there is a small living room and two workrooms of the princess and his wife.
The workroom of Prince Souphanouvong is simply decorated, with a rattan-made table and chairs, some bookcase and a cabinet. On the cabinet top is the portrait of President Ho, a censor and a pair of candlesticks.
The workroom of Ms. Ky Nam is simpler. On her bookcase is a small statue of Trung sisters, Vietnamese heroines.
Many photos featuring Prince Souphanouvong or his family with President Ho and Vietnamese leaders like Ton Duc Thang, Le Duan, Pham Van Dong and Vo Nguyen Giap.
In a visit to Ms. Thongvin, the wife of former Lao President Kayson Phomvihan, together with a delegation of the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union, I saw a photo of Mr. Kayson and President Ho in her living room.
Prince Souphanouvong and his Vietnamese wife, Ms. Ky Nam.
Ms. Thongvin, over 80, who was the first secretary of the Lao Democratic Youth Union, said: “I’m very happy to see the two Youth Unions are side by side to build the two countries. You must maintain and follow the tradition of the special relations between Vietnam and Laos, remember!”
General Saman Vignaket, former Politburo member and former Chair of Laos National Assembly, told Mr. Nguyen Dac Vinh, the first secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union and his Lao counterpart Vilayvong Bouddakham and the Vietnamese delegation: “In the 70s-80s, I went to Hanoi to meet with Mr. Pham Van Dong; he told me: ‘Comrade Saman, our generation is about to see President Ho. We have to educate the young generation to urge them to pursue our revolutionary cause and the special solidarity between the two countries’. I met Mr. Vo Nguyen Giap and he also told me like that.”
“The solidarity between Vietnam and Laos is the one in this world. Prince Souphanouvong said: we have many strategic friends but nobody is better than the friend who fights in the same trench with us. There are many relations but the relations between Vietnam and Laos is always more special than others because we share the same trench,” he added.
General Saman Vignaket is called the ideologist of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party. He was born in Thailand and worked for a Vietnamese family in Thailand when he as a boy. This family adopted him and gave him a Vietnamese name “Duc”. He joined the army led by Kayson Phomvihan. Laos-Vietnam families Thanks to the deep affection between the two countries, many Lao and Vietnamese become husband and wife. Prince Souphanouvong and his wife, Ms. Ky Nam is an example.
At the Souphanouvong Museum in Vientiane, there is a photo of a young and beautiful couple, with captions in Lao and English: “Prince Souphanouvong and Ms. Nguyen Thi Ky Nam in their wedding in Nha Trang, January 19, 1938.”
At the age of 11, prince Souphanouvong was sent to Hanoi to study at the Albert Sarraut School. After that, he went to France to study at the Paris Civil Engineering University. He was the first civil engineer in Indochina.
Returning to Indochina, prince Souphanouvong worked in central Vietnam, at important positions like the chief architect of Nha Trang, chief technician of the civil engineering department of central Vietnam. He designed and observed the construction of many irrigation works in Vietnam. Seven of them are still used today.
Ms. Ngoc Anh.
Phan Thiet water tower, designed by the prince, is praised by experts as a beautiful and the most unique water tower in Vietnam. It has become an official symbol of the central province of Binh Thuan.
He also built Yen Xuan Bridge across the Ca River, Do Luong, Thanh Chuong and Bai Thuong dams in central Vietnam. Bai Thuong dam, which is 160m long, 23.5m high, supplies water for more than 50,000 hectares of fields. It used to be a tourist attraction and was printed on stamps.
Working in Vietnam, the prince got married with Ms. Ky Nam, a girl from central Vietnam. Someone said that Ms. Ky Nam is a cousin of Vietnam’s last King Bao Dai.
When the prince was appointed as the chief architect of Nha Trang, he hired a hotel room in Nha Trang, where he met with Ms. Ky Nam, a schoolgirl of Dong Khanh High School in Hue city, who returned home during a summer vacation.
The same year, Ms. Ky Nam was crowned Miss Central Vietnam. They got married on January 19, 1938. Their honeymoon was a trip along rivers in central Vietnam.
Ms. Ky Nam had a Lao name – Viengkham. She became the deputy director of the Lao Institute for Social Sciences.
There is a photo of the couple, taken in 1972. They still looked young and happy like in the wedding photo they took 34 years ago. They had 10 children, including eight sons and two daughters. There is also a picture featuring Ms. Ky Nam, her children, with President Ho.
During the visit of the delegation of the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union to Laos, we met with Dr. Kongkeo Xaysongkham, Vice Party Secretary and Chair of Bolikhamxay province. We paid a visit to his home on the way to Vientiane.
Dr. Kongkeo’s wife is Ms. Ngoc Anh, a Hanoian. Ngoc Anh felt in love with Kongkeo, a Lao student at the Hanoi Transport University, and then they got married. (Dr. Khampha Phimason, who studied at the National Economics University in Hanoi also got married with a Hanoi girl. This is also similar to many other Lao-Vietnam families).
Asking Ms. Ngoc Anh about their love story, she only smiled and said perhaps it was their destiny. Several days later, some people in Vientiane, who knew clearly about the couple, said that Mr. Kongkeo attended a wedding near Ngoc Anh’s home and their love was at the first sight. They now have two children, a son and a daughter.
Receiving Vietnamese newspapers as gifts from the first secretary of the Ho Chi Minh Youth Union, Ms. Ngoc Anh said that these were valuable spiritual gifts and added that her children can speak Vietnamese fluently.
“They were born in Vietnam but study in Laos. During summer, I sent them to their grandparents in Vietnam to study Vietnamese,” she said. Vietnam-Laos friendship keeps growing The deep-rooted sentiments between the two nations have been developed. This year – 2012 – is considered as the Friendship and Solidarity Year, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Laos. The two countries recently revealed the cooperation plan in 2012.
Both sides agreed to popularize a project on the history of special Vietnam-Laos ties and the Vietnam-Laos combat alliance and continue to gather more evidence to complete the project.
The two countries will increase the exchange of information and implement commitments within the multilateral cooperation framework, including ASEAN, the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) and the East West Economic Corridor (EWEC).
They will examine Vietnamese-funded projects in Laos and sign a new investment protection and encouragement agreement to replace the 1996 agreement.
Both sides agreed to hold groundbreaking and inauguration ceremonies of major joint cooperation projects invested by Vietnamese businesses to celebrate key anniversaries in 2012.
They will effectively implement their trade development scheme for 2008-2015 to raise two-way trade to US$2 billion by 2015. They will complete the formulation of the Vietnam-Laos border trade development master plan and coordinate with Cambodia to soon sign the tripartite road transport agreement.
At the session, both hosts and guests shared the view that in 2011, Vietnam and Laos boosted cooperation in education and training, closely coordinated at multilateral forums and reached high consensus on international and regional issues.
The two countries closely coordinated in implementing Vietnamese-funded projects in Laos and increased the exchange of experiences in culture, sports, museums and other fields.
By the end of March, Vietnamese enterprises had had 212 investment projects worth nearly US $3.5 billion in Laos, mostly in hydroelectricity, mining, agriculture and forestry.
Mr. Tran Bac Ha, Chairman of the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Laos (AVIL), said that Vietnamese investment in Laos has increased in both project number and capital in recent years.
In 2011, Vietnam had 15 investment projects worth nearly US$500 million licensed in Laos. Now, Vietnamese-invested projects are implemented in 16 out of 17 Lao provinces.
Egyptian protesters chant anti-ruling military council slogans during a rally demanding the release of fellow activists, detained during the army operation that dispersed a protest in front of the Ministry of Defense, in Cairo, Egypt May 6, 2012.
TEXT SIZE VOA News May 19, 2012
An international human rights group has accused Egypt's military of beating and torturing protesters arrested during a huge rally near the Defense Ministry in Cairo earlier this month.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Saturday soldiers fired tear gas and water cannon at thousands of demonstrators demanding an immediate end to military rule and arrested some 350 people as part of its crackdown on the protests.
Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director for the group, said "the brutal beating of both men and women protesters shows that military officers have no sense of limits on what they can do."
The three days of street clashes outside the defense ministry building began on May 2 and came two days after fighting in Cairo left at least 11 people dead and more than 100 others wounded. The violence prompted the top two Islamist candidates for the presidency to suspend their campaigns.
Egypt's presidential elections are scheduled for May 23 - 24.
The military council took over after the ouster of longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. The council has promised a democratic transition and transfer of power to an elected president by July 1.
But Egypt's generals have faced strong domestic criticism for their handling of that process, which has been plagued by periodic eruptions of deadly violence, often surrounding anti-government protests in major cities.
Groupe des droits de Accuse militaire égyptienne de la torture
Égyptiennes manifestants scandent des slogans anti-pouvoir du conseil militaire au cours d'un rassemblement réclamant la libération de camarades militants, arrêtés au cours de l'opération de l'armée qui a dispersé une manifestation devant le ministère de la Défense, au Caire, en Égypte le 6 mai 2012.
TAILLE DU TEXTE VOA Nouvelles 19 mai 2012 Un groupe international de droits de l'homme a accusé l'Egypte militaire de battre et torturer les manifestants arrêtés lors d'un rassemblement énorme à proximité du ministère de la Défense au Caire plus tôt ce mois-ci.
Le basée à New York Human Rights Watch a déclaré samedi soldats ont tiré des gazlacrymogènes et des canons à eau à des milliers de manifestants demandent la finimmédiate du régime militaire et ont arrêté quelque 350 personnes dans le cadre de sarépression des manifestations.
Joe Stork, directeur adjoint du Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord pour le groupe, a déclaré: «le passage à tabac des hommes et des femmes montre que les manifestantsofficiers militaires n'ont aucun sens des limites sur ce qu'ils peuvent faire."
Les trois jours de combats de rue devant le bâtiment ministère de la Défense a commencé le 2 mai et intervient deux jours après les combats dans le Caire a fait au moins 11 morts et plus de 100 autres blessés. La violence a incité les deux premiers candidats islamistes pour la présidence de suspendre leurs campagnes.
Élections présidentielles de l'Egypte sont prévues pour le 23 mai - 24.
Le conseil militaire a repris après l'éviction de longue date autocratique du président Hosni Moubarak en Février 2011. Le conseil a promis une transition démocratique et le transfert du pouvoir à un président élu par le Juillet 1.
Mais les généraux de l'Egypte ont fait face à de vives critiques pour leur gestion internede ce processus, qui a été en proie à des éruptions périodiques de violence meurtrière,qui entourent souvent protestations anti-gouvernementales dans les grandes villes.
Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will give a historic speech to both houses of Britain's parliament next month when she makes her first trip outside the country in 24 years.
British Prime Minister David Cameron invited the Nobel Peace Prize winner to come to Britain when he visited her in Burma in April.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been given the rare honor of addressing the joint houses of Britain's parliament, even though she is not a head of state.
She is scheduled to begin her week-long stay in Britain on June 18. She is also expected to visit Norway.
She lived for years in Britain with her husband, now deceased, and their two sons, until returning to her homeland in 1988, when she was required to turn in her passport. She has not traveled outside Burma since then, fearing the military junta that held on to power until 2011 would not permit her to return.
Her European journey follows months of dramatic change in Burma, including a historic election in April that won her a seat in a parliament that replaces nearly five decades of oppressive military rule.
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the suspension of economic sanctions against Burma, which have banned U.S. investment in the country for the last 15 years. Clinton also announced that Derek Mitchell, the State Department's special representative to Burma, will be nominated as U.S. ambassador to the country.
Clinton: 2011 a 'Tumultuous' Year for Human Rights
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a news conference at the State Department, Washington, May 24, 2012.
Scott Stearns May 24, 2012
STATE DEPARTMENT - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says elections in Egypt and political reforms in Burma show the power of human rights in changing people's lives.
Secretary Clinton says 2011 was an especially tumultuous and momentous year for human rights. "Many of the events that have dominated recent headlines, from the revolutions in the Middle East to reforms in Burma, began with human rights, with the clear call of men and women demanding their universal rights," she stated.
Today in Egypt, Secretary Clinton says those demands are making a difference as voters go to the polls to choose their leaders for the first time.
"Whatever the outcome of the election, the Egyptian people will keep striving to achieve their aspirations. And as they do, we will continue to support them," said Clinton. "We will support people everywhere who seek the same, men and women who want to speak, worship, associate, love the way they choose."
Launching the State Department's annual human-rights report, Secretary Clinton said 21st Century human rights means having the same rights on-line as off. They are not only a question of civil and political liberties, she says, but the fundamental question of whether people everywhere have the chance to make the most of their potential.
"There is a lot of work that remains to be done. In too many places, governments continue to stifle their own people's aspirations. And in some places, like Syria, it is not just an assault on freedom of expression or freedom of association, but an assault on the very lives of citizens," noted Clinton. "The Assad regime's brutality against its own people must and will end because Syrians know they deserve a better future.
Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Michael Posner says there were many encouraging developments in 2011; in Zambia and Tunisia there were free elections, in Colombia where he says the government continues to work toward improving justice in human-rights cases, and in Burma.
"Much more needs to be done including releasing all remaining political prisoners, working to end violence against ethnic minorities," said Posner. "But we will continue to encourage that government to keep making progress on those issues in the coming year."
In China, Posner says U.S. officials are closely monitoring what is happening to family members and friends who helped dissident Chen Guangcheng escape house arrest. "In the last several years, there has been a closing of space for human rights lawyers and activists in China. Those are things of concern," he said.
The human-rights report says freedoms of expression, assembly, and association in China have deteriorated with authorities in Beijing resorting to extralegal measures to silence political activists.
Globally, the report says there has been an increase in anti-Semitism and continued persecution of other religious minorities including Ahmadis, Baha’is, Tibetan Buddhists, Christians, and Jews as well as abuse, discrimination, and violence against members of racial and ethnic minorities; people with disabilities; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people
Deal Or No Deal, Iran May Be Bombed, Says Israeli Minister
By: RT
May 23, 2012 A military strike against Iranian facilities is not out of the question, even though Tehran has reached agreement on a probe with the UN’s nuclear watchdog, says Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
The official was referring to a deal announced on Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Barak called it an Iranian ploy to fend off international pressure.
The minister told Army Radio that “a nuclear Iran is intolerable and no options should be taken off the table,” referring to the use of force.
He said the only way Israel could see Iran develop its civilian nuclear industry is if it shuts down all of its uranium enrichment sites and uses imported fuel.
The comments came as Iranian nuclear negotiators are meeting the P5+1 group in Baghdad on Wednesday. They are to discuss the conflict over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which the West suspects of being a clandestine attempt to build an atomic weapon. Iran insists its pursuits are purely civilian.
“Dragging things out, in our eyes, is problematic, so conversations between the West and Iran must occur more frequently. North Korea also negotiated with the West but in the end tested nuclear weapons,” Barak pointed out.
Last week US Ambassador Dan Shapiro said the Pentagon has a plan for a military strike on Iran, and may carry it out if ordered.
“It would be preferable to resolve this diplomatically and through the use of pressure than to use military force,” he said.
Possible use of force against Iran has been discussed by Israel and its western allies for months. Israel insists on the right to strike when and if it sees fit, saying it will not ask for anyone’s consent. There is fear that if such an attack happens, Iran would retaliate at any forces it sees as enemies, which could result in a major regional war.
Deal Or No Deal, l'Iran pourrait être bombardé, dit le ministre israélien Par: RT
23 mai 2012
Une frappe militaire contre les installations iraniennes n'est pas hors de question,même si Téhéran a conclu un accord sur une sonde avec chien de garde nucléaire de l'ONU, dit israélien de la Défense, Ehud Barak, ministre.
Le fonctionnaire faisait allusion à un accord annoncé mardi par l'Agence internationale d'énergie atomique. Barak a appelé un stratagème iranien pour parer à la pression internationale.
Le ministre a déclaré radio de l'armée que «un Iran nucléaire est intolérable et pas d'options devrait être retirée de la table", en référence à l'usage de la force.
Il a déclaré que le seul moyen d'Israël pourrait voir l'Iran à développer son industrie nucléaire civile est si elle s'arrête ensemble de ses sites d'enrichissement d'uranium et utilise le carburant importé.
Les commentaires sont venus en tant que négociateurs iraniens nucléaires se réunissent le groupe P5 +1 à Bagdad mercredi. Ils sont pour discuter du conflit sur les ambitions nucléaires de l'Iran, dont les suspects de l'Ouest d'être une tentativeclandestine de construire une arme atomique. L'Iran insiste sur ses activités sont purement civiles.
"Faire glisser les choses, à nos yeux, est problématique, conversations, etc entre l'Occident et l'Iran doit se produire plus fréquemment. La Corée du Nord a également négocié avec l'Occident mais à la fin testé des armes nucléaires, "Barak a souligné.
La semaine dernière, l'ambassadeur américain Dan Shapiro dit que le Pentagone a un plan pour une frappe militaire sur l'Iran, et peut les effectuer si commandé.
"Il serait préférable de résoudre ce diplomatiquement et grâce à l'utilisation de la pression que d'utiliser la force militaire», at-il dit.
Possibilité d'utiliser la force contre l'Iran a été examiné par Israël et ses alliés occidentaux pendant des mois. Israël insiste sur le droit de grève quand et s'il le juge opportun, en disant qu'il ne sera pas demander le consentement de quiconque. Il est à craindre que si une telle attaque se produit, l'Iran exercerait des représailles à toutes les forces qu'il voit comme des ennemis, ce qui pourrait entraîner une guerre régionale majeure.
sabaidee took tharn, In my opinion, what you are proposing right now by saying that the leaders of lao overseas that will enter in the race with you should at least have a bachelor degree, i think this propose is nothing different than what Lao-Dang or Keo-dang is doing for the past 37yrs since they took over Laos... one example is by announcing that they welcome all Lao Overseas to return home but have to have $500,00.00..How about the people who doesn't have five hundred thousands $???? Does that mean they CAN'T return home??? same thing as you are saying up front, If you don't have a bachelor degree than DON'T even THINK!!!!(Nee Pen kharn pit kanh douy tharng ormm) Bor Mee Paxatipatay. In my opinion, To be a leader does not have to have "Kuam Huu" only, such as Dr. or professors..but must also have "Panya" jeung ja boriharn Phated dai.
The flame of nationalism mostly starts from people who valued their nation, human being, morality and motherland where they were born. The people who possess these values could be anybody, not just aristocrats with white faces, people with high academic degrees, or with official ranks as Phraya and generals.
And also, politicians with national level qualifications as i see appropriate must be a person WHO is TRUTHFUL, WHO SACRIFICE, WHO IS HONEST TO THE COUNTRY, PEOPLE, AND FRIENDS; WHO KNOWS TO RESPECT OTHERS, WHO IS A LEARNER SEEKING MORE KNOWLEDGES, WHO HAS A SPIRIT STRIVING FOR PROGRESS AND THE COUNTRY CAN DEPEND ON..NOT WHO is..AN OPPORTUNIST WHO SIDE WHICHEVER SIDE THAT HE/SHE COULD GET BENEFITS FROM.
Please allow me to introduce myself, I , Bounkhong Arounsavat 61, am a president of Human Rights Watch Laos, Inc. since 1996 and changed name to the Lao International Human Rights, Inc. in 2012 - A04430, President of the International Lao for Reconciliation, Incorporated. A04917 since 2010 and a Moderator of Freelaosnetwork forum since 2010.
The Lao Delegations ( GPNUE ) had been met with the Government of CANADA on May, 23, 2012 to submit the "PETITION" more than a thousand pages with the complete set for the case of Laos, plus supported clips, visuals, pictures, etc... They also requested this government to host the Lao General Election of the long weekend labor day in September.
According to the Lao delegations who had the full authority from GPNUE said: Representatives from the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs are so excited and pump up to hearing that type of Lao Abroad movements in the foreign lands to be planning to conduct the democratically elect our leader to become the Lao leader in Exile.
By the "ASEM" summit held, we will have the real legitimate opposition government in exile to launch out before the world in Vientiane.
I, therefore, would like to urge every Lao political organizations to be prepared to join the free and fair election in Canada.
We will set up the rules and policies to monitor this effort. These rules will be drafted by the "National Supreme Councils in Exile " to enforce to be fair and balance to each group. We need to practice our freedom and democracy in exile before we can bring to enforce in Laos.
The Lao Delegations nominated me to act as the middle man as a mediator and the Chairman of the Board and the Committees: to act as - "The National Supreme Councils in Exile "to oversee the works of each organization who has been formed up in the foreign lands who has the intention to work for the country.
The Lao Delegations do not interfere with the "National Supreme Councils in Exile" to rule the election policy out. I would also like to invite you to send your representative to join a team member of the council but it will not exceeding 15 people to expedite this process as soon as possible.
My work is to facilitate to each organization to come out and speak up now and draft the rule for the free and fair election in September at Canada and the constitution will finish before or on July 1st, 2012
There will be 60 days for all leaders to study the rule and send the application of the candidate to the electoral commission of the free and fair election of Laotians Overseas in Canada
By doing so, this will give us the high hope for the United Nations and the US government to provide the support to the Democratic Lao and Hmong to reform Laos in the same text as Kampuchea.
Party Congress and National Assembly elections in Laos March 18th, 2011 by Simon Creak · 1 Comment Many readers will know that the 9th Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party kicked off on Thursday. It will run until early next week. As usual, the party’s lack of transparency means we can only guess at the outcomes. Most observers – in the media and among the chattering classes (the sapha kafe or Café Congress) – expect Choummaly Sayasone to be reelected as General Secretary of the party. An AFP article quoting Martin Stuart-Fox trots out familiar messages about the congress being a “power struggle” between older Vietnam-aligned forces and younger China-aligned ones. Personally I’m more convinced by those who think Politburo members recognise the importance of each country – and are happy to be wooed by both of them. Other questions such as the influence of the military and its factions are even less penetrable. Two things seem certain, in spite of Bouasone Bouphavanh’s surprise replacement by Thongsing Thammavong late last year: Laos will continue to pursue a strategy of high economic growth based on ever-increasing exploitation of natural resources and power will continue to be contested within the party, even if the party remains as stridently unchallenged as ever. The elections of the National Assembly will follow on 30 April. A kind reader has sent in some interesting information regarding the NA candidates list for the 2011 election. Very few of the previous NA deputies are returning as candidates – 45 of 115. A large proportion are women – 47 of 190. Number of seats has been increased – 115 to 132. 47 of the candidates are centrally appointed, although we know all are centrally approved. 43 of the candidates are not lowland Lao (Lao Lum). Only one Politburo member – Mrs. Pany (Hmong), who is running for Xayabouly, not her home province of Xieng Khouang. Just over half a dozen Central Committee members – 1) Dr. Panmalaythong (Vientiane Capital) ; 2) Dr. Kikeo (Vientiane Capital); 3) Somphanh Phengkhammy (Huaphan – home province); 4) Mrs. Bounpheng Mounphoxay (Xieng Khouang – home province); 5) Dr. Xaysomphone Phomvihane (Savannakhet; born in Huaphan); 6) Phandouangchit Vongsa (Champasak; Huaphan native). 7 of the 25 candidates in Savannakhet are Phu Tai. 16 of the 17 candidates in Champasak are Lao. 9 of the 10 candidates in Salavan are Lao. The children of Samane Vinyakhet and Sutchai Thammasith are running as candidates. Samane’s daughter is running for a seat in Salavan where her husband’s family comes from. An ethnic Ta-oi called Khamdeng Kommadam is running as a candidate in Xekong. He is no relation to Sithon Kommadam. Famous lowland Lao families such as the Pholsena, Lasasimma and Soutthichak are running candidates in Champasak.
From: Khamfeng Chanthany To: Network room Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 7:19 AM Subject: Fwd: ຫນ້າເປັນຫ່ວງແຂວງຢູນານໃຫມ່ຂອງຈີນ - Chinese business leaders eye opportunities in Laos
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: PHASOUK Date: Sat, Apr 7, 2012 at 12:17 AM Subject: Fw: ຫນ້າເປັນຫ່ວງແຂວງຢູນານໃຫມ່ຂອງຈີນ - Chinese business leaders eye opportunities in Laos To: Laosnetwork
ຫນ້າເປັນຫ່ວງແຂວງຢູນານໃຫມ່ຂອງຈີນ
Chinese business leaders eye opportunities in Laos
The number of Chinese investment projects and their value is expected to surge over the next few years in Laos, as more Chinese business operators are discovering that their neighbouring country is an attractive investment destination. Representatives from Lao and Chinese businesses meet in Vientiane on Friday to discuss cooperation.
A group of Chinese business representatives met up with their Lao counterparts in Vientiane on Friday to discuss partnerships in the manufacturing industry and the transfer of knowledge and technology from China to Laos. The one day meeting was a joint effort by the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Yunnan provincial authorities in China. The private sector cooperation is a part of the Laos-China strategic partnership. Laos is encouraging foreign investment, especially from China, as the two countries share similar political systems. There are a number of potential areas for investment, including border trade, agriculture, hydropower and mining. The Chamber's Secretary General, Mr Khanthavong Daravong, said about 80 representatives of Chinese businesses had visited Laos this year, which reflected the growing interest in Laos' investment potential. He said this was the second Laos-China business matching meeting, after the first such meeting took place two years ago. Mr Khanthavong said Chinese operators were not only looking for Lao business partners who could help them to distribute their goods but were also looking for Lao products that could be sold in China. Some are looking for Lao partners to establish joint ventures in mining, hydropower and agriculture, as they believe Laos has plenty of natural resources that can be used as raw materials. Mr Khanthavong said there were both opportunities and challenges in rising Chinese investment in Laos. One of the positives is the spur to economic growth, while the downside is that people in Laos need to be better educated to ensure they get a fair deal in any business venture. “Lao nationals need to raise the level of their education and working skills if they want to partner with Chinese businesses, otherwise they will face challenges in running a joint venture,” he said. Yunan Zhenxing Group Co Ltd General Manager Mr Ma Zhukuan said his company was looking for a Lao business partner to set up a battery factory, adding that one of the major advantages of Laos was the plentiful supply of raw materials. Another advantage was that Laos would be a suitable production base for the supply of batteries to the Mekong region due to its central location among strengthening economies. This was his first visit to Vientiane, he said, but he had already been to northern Laos to explore business and investment opportunities there. According to a report from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, China is one of the top three investors in Laos along with Vietnam and Thailand.