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Laos
Lao People's Democratic Republic National name: Sathalanalat Paxathipatai
Paxaxon Lao President: Choummaly
Sayasone (2006) Prime Minister:
Bouasone Bouphavanh (2006)
Current government officials
Land area: 89,112 sq mi (230,800 sq km);
total area: 91,428 sq mi (236,800 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 6,677,534 (growth
rate: 2.3%); birth rate: 34.4/1000; infant mortality rate: 79.6/1000;
life expectancy: 56.2; density per sq km: 28
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Vientiane, 194,200 Monetary unit: New Kip
Languages:
Lao (official), French, English, various ethnic
languages
Ethnicity/race:
Lao Loum (lowland) 68%, Lao Theung (upland) 22%,
Lao Soung (highland) including the Hmong (“Meo”) and the
Yao (Mien) 9%, ethnic Vietnamese/Chinese 1%
Religions:
Buddhist 60%, animist and other 40% (including
Christian 2%)
National Holiday:
Republic Day, December 2 Literacy rate: 53% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$12.65 billion; per capita $2,100. Real growth rate: 7.5%.
Inflation: 4.5%. Unemployment: 2.5% . Arable
land: 4%. Agriculture: sweet potatoes, vegetables, corn,
coffee, sugarcane, tobacco, cotton, tea, peanuts, rice; water buffalo,
pigs, cattle, poultry. Labor force: 2.8 million (2002 est.);
agriculture 80%, industry and services 20% (1997 est.).
Industries: copper, tin, and gypsum mining; timber, electric
power, agricultural processing, construction, garments, tourism,
cement. Natural resources: timber, hydropower, gypsum, tin,
gold, gemstones. Exports: $379 million (2005 est.): garments,
wood products, coffee, electricity, tin. Imports: $541 million
f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and equipment, vehicles, fuel, consumer
goods. Major trading partners: Thailand, Vietnam, France,
Germany, UK, China, Singapore (2004) . Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 25,000 (1997); mobile cellular: 4,915 (1997). Radio broadcast
stations: AM 12, FM 1, shortwave 4 (1998). Radios: 730,000
(1997). Television broadcast stations: 4 (1999).
Televisions: 52,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers
(ISPs): 1 (2000). Internet users: 10,000 (2002). Transportation: Railways: 0 km.
Highways: total: 21,716 km; paved: 9,664 km; unpaved: 12,052 km
(1999 est.). Waterways: about 4,587 km, primarily Mekong and
tributaries; 2,897 additional km are sectionally navigable by craft
drawing less than 0.5 m. Ports and harbors: none.
Airports: 51 (2002). International
disputes: demarcation of boundaries with Cambodia, Thailand, and
Vietnam is nearing completion, but with Thailand several areas
including Mekong River islets remain in dispute; ongoing disputes with
Thailand and Vietnam over squatters.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
A landlocked nation in Southeast Asia occupying
the northwest portion of the Indochinese peninsula, Laos is surrounded by
China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Burma. It is twice the size of
Pennsylvania. Laos is a mountainous country, especially in the north,
where peaks rise above 9,000 ft (2,800 m). Dense forests cover the
northern and eastern areas. The Mekong River, which forms the boundary
with Burma and Thailand, flows through the country for 932 mi (1,500 km)
of its course.
Government
Communist state.
History
The Lao people migrated into Laos from southern
China from the 8th century onward. In the 14th century, the first Laotian
state was founded, the Lan Xang kingdom, which ruled Laos until it split
into three separate kingdoms in 1713. During the 18th century the three
kingdoms came under Siamese (Thai) rule and, in 1893, became a French
protectorate. Its territory was incorporated into the union of Indochina.
A strong nationalist movement developed during World War II, but France
reestablished control in 1946 and made the king of Luang Prabang
constitutional monarch of all Laos. France granted semiautonomy in 1949
and then, spurred by the Viet Minh rebellion in Vietnam, full independence
within the French Union in 1950.
In 1951, Prince Souphanouvong organized the
Pathet Lao, a Communist independence movement, in North Vietnam. Viet Minh
and Pathet Lao forces invaded central Laos, and civil war resulted. By the
Geneva agreements of 1954 and an armistice of 1955, two northern provinces
were given to the Pathet Lao: the rest went to the royal regime. Full
sovereignty was given to the kingdom by the Paris agreements of Dec. 29,
1954. In 1957, Prince Souvanna Phouma, the royal prime minister, and
Pathet Lao leader Prince Souphanouvong, the prime minister's half-brother,
agreed to reestablishment of a unified government, with Pathet Lao
participation and integration of Pathet Lao forces into the royal army.
The agreement broke down in 1959, and armed conflict began anew.
In 1960, the struggle became three-way as Gen.
Phoumi Nosavan, controlling the bulk of the royal army, set up in the
south a pro-Western revolutionary government headed by Prince Boun Oum.
General Phoumi took Vientiane in December, driving Souvanna Phouma into
exile in Cambodia. The Soviet bloc supported Souvanna Phouma. In 1961, a
cease-fire was arranged and the three princes agreed to a coalition
government headed by Souvanna Phouma.
But North Vietnam, the U.S. (in the form of CIA
personnel), and China remained active in Laos after the settlement. North
Vietnam used a supply line (Ho Chi Minh Trail) running down the mountain
valleys of eastern Laos into Cambodia and South Vietnam, particularly
after the U.S.–South Vietnamese incursion into Cambodia in 1970
stopped supplies via Cambodian seaports.
An agreement reached in 1973 revived the
coalition government. The Communist Pathet Lao seized complete power in
1975, installing Souphanouvong as president and Kaysone Phomvihane as
prime minister. Since then other parties and political groups have been
moribund and most of their leaders have fled the country. The monarchy was
abolished on Dec. 2, 1975, when the Pathet Lao ousted a coalition
government and King Sisavang Vatthana abdicated.
The Supreme People's Assembly in Aug. 1991
adopted a new constitution that dropped all references to socialism but
retained the one-party state. In addition to implementing market-oriented
policies, the country has passed laws governing property, inheritance, and
contracts.
During the 1990s, the country began making more
diplomatic overtures toward its neighbors. In 1995, the U.S. announced a
lifting of its ban on aid to the nation. By most international estimates,
Laos is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world. The subsistence
farmers who make up more than 80% of the population have been plagued with
bad agricultural conditions—alternately floods and
drought—since 1993.
Since March 2000, Vientiane has been rocked by a
series of unexplained blasts. The activity has been widely attributed to a
group of Hmong tribesmen based in the north. The anti-Communist rebel
group has been protesting the government's reluctance to embrace
democratic reforms. Others attribute the bombs to rival factions in the
government or military.
In Feb. 2002 parliamentary elections, 165 out of
166 candidates were members of the governing Lao People's Revolutionary
Party. In 2006, Choummaly Sayasone became party secretary-general and
president of Laos. First Deputy Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh became
prime minister.
See also Encyclopedia: Laos. U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Laos
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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