Chairman

Hon. Colin Hollis, MP (AUSTRALIA)

We conducted a preliminary survey in July of last year, and the field survey in September. During the research we dealt with the issues of population, family p lanning, as well as the community influence on agriculture, which were the main themes of our field survey. I myself was very interested in the agricultural de velopment, so I would like to make the report on that first.

The most important point in the agricultural issues regarding the Laos PDR is t hat the country is surrounded by the other Asian countries without any direct e xposure to the sea. The north is bordered with mainland China, Myanmar, the eas t is bordered with Vietnam, Kampuchea in the South, and Thailand in the west. T he Laos PDR is surrounded by five countries. In other words, Laos is highly aff ected by the situation in the surrounding countries. Furthermore, Laos is cover ed mostly by hillside or mountains, as much as 80% of the land is covered by mountains over 1000 meters in height.

In the past, Laos was under French Law. The French regarded this country to be of very limited potential, and also because of its many mountains the cost of t he infrastructure, including the construction of the roads, was very high. So t he French administrator at that time decided not to make major investments in t he infrastructure of Laos. In other words, although France did have control ove r all the areas, they still thought that Laos was not at the top of their prior ity list under their administration. That is just the reason why Laos, as a cou ntry, is still lacking in infrastructure, including nationwide road network and tele-communication network. Along the border with China, the Chinese currency i s used in Lao. Along the border of Thailand, the Thai currency is available wit hin the Laos territory. The currency of Laos has not been proliferated througho ut the country, which should be regarded as one major feature very unique to La os that cannot be found in other surrounding countries. That is the reason why the agricultural development is not so highly developed. The population of 4.6 million consists of 68 traditional tribes or his-torical ethnic groups. Thus it is rather difficult to identify the nationwide economic trend as far as nationa l policies are concerned, as the situation is very divisive and separate within the country of Laos.

About 90 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture and forestry for a living. However, the domestic income is only about less than 60 percent of the GDP, and there-fore the income level supported by agriculture and forestry is r ather low. In the context of

　

　

　

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