a good distribution and a logical infrastructure. If there are no trucks or if there is a lack of infrastructure, a practiced market economy cannot be impleme nted. I believe that the building of an infrastructure, particularly the road n etwork, would be very, very impor-tant.

Many former socialist countries are still going through very painful process of trying new approaches. There have been successes and failures. Laos is no exemp tion. Laos has not yet found a firm path for successful market economy. They ar e still struggling. Yes, the government has embarked upon many programs, they h ave recognized the need to pro-mote extension workers, and they have recognized the need to provide credit to farmers. They are also setting up a rice bank sch eme, whereby people should deposit rice during a good harvest and draw from tha t reserve when they are in need. The government is also suggesting cooperatives . Many things have been said, but the real challenge is how to put those words into actions.

Japan has been extending official assistance to the Laos Republic since 1986 wh en the Lao government embarked upon a new economic policy. For the past decade, the total accumulated assistance extended by the government of Japan in the for m of grants was approximately 45 billion yen, which is about 45 million dollars . In other words, there have been 100 dollars of per capita assistance provided by Japan over the past ten years or so. In 1995 alone Japan has extended anothe r 4.5 billion yen of such assistance.

This assistance money has been spent on improving the airport facilities in the capital city of Vientiane to make ensure the secure operation of the airport. T he money was also in-vested to improve the road infrastructure linking the nort hern and southern parts of the country, the National Trunk Road No. 13, and man y bridges exist alongside this trunk, of which many had deteriorated. The Japan ese invested or provided assistance, to reinforce and build many bridges. The a ssistance was given with the recognition that the first thing that the country must do is to improve the infrastructure.

There should also be other assistance such as human development and transfer of tech-nology. Japan has invited trainees from Laos in order to develop experts. Over the years 742 Laotians have come to Japan to be trained as experts. We hav e also been dispatching 258 experts from Japan. More than I ,OOO people have be en sent to Laos to come to grips with the realities and problems of the country . The government of Laos also re-quested the Japanese government to conduct num erous researches and studies on the ag-riculture. Just to name a few, from Nove mber 1995 to October 1997, in a two-year period, a program has been implemented to identifying impediments to agricultural development. Field investigations, r esearches and interviews are being carried out at this moment to identify the p roblems so that the Japanese government can assist in better designing the mast er plan for the national development of the country, with particular focus on a gricul-ture. We are considering organizing demonstration fanns and also setting up a model village. We are drawing up numerous ideas right now so for the next 5 years they can be implemented.