Laos targets hydropower not democracy
- From: Chim <ChimS1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2007 14:07:12 -0800 (PST)
By Daryl Loo and Geert De Clercq Reuters - Sunday, November 18 12:15
pm
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Landlocked Laos is shaping itself into a battery
for its power-hungry neighbours, by damming up its rivers to tap
hydropower, but the communist state has no plans to introduce
democracy, its prime minister told Reuters.
With an average monthly income of less than $2 (98 pence) a day and 80
percent of its 6.5 million population surviving on subsistence
farming, Laos is one of the world's poorest countries.
"Compared to the U.S., which is in the 21st century, Laos is still in
the 16th or 17th century," Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh said
in an interview ahead of the ASEAN Summit.
But the communist-led country, which dropped central planning for
market reforms in 1986, is developing fast and saw its economy grow 8
percent in the fiscal year to September 2007.
"We are confident we can achieve another 8 percent growth for fiscal
year 2007/2008, and we believe we can achieve higher growth beyond
that," Bouphavanh, 53, said through a translator.
Bouphavanh -- who became PM in 2006 -- expects that foreign direct
investment (FDI) this year will more than double to $500 million, from
$200 million in the last fiscal year, with funds mainly coming from
neighbouring China, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Much of Laos' FDI will go into turning the country into what it calls
"a battery for the region", through a series of dams that will
generate power for sale to its neighbours.
Major investors in Laos' hydropower and infrastructure industries
include China's Sinohydro Corp and Datang International Power;
Thailand's Banpu and Italian-Thai Development; and Vietnam's Song Da
Group and Petrovietnam.
Companies from Western countries investing in Laos include Australia's
Oxiana, French electricity group EDF, and London-listed Salamander
Energy.
Laos currently has the capacity to produce 600 megawatts of
hydropower, of which 200 megawatt are exported.
But Bouphavanh said the country has the potential to produce up to
28,000 megawatt of hydropower from the Mekong River and the 16 Mekong
tributaries within Laos borders.
It has already committed to supply 7,000 megawatts to Thailand, 5,000
megawatts to Vietnam, and 1,500 megawatts to Cambodia by 2015, he
added.
Laos' dams have come under tough criticism from environmental groups,
who slam the projects for harming biodiversity and displacing the many
ethnic communities that live in the area.
The Soviet-educated Bouphavanh -- a career cadre who took part in
Laos' 1975 communist revolution -- refused to be drawn on a date for
when Laos could become a democracy.
"I don't think it will be the right path for Laos to have a multi-
party system," said Bouphavanh.
The ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party is the country's only
legal political group in the country.
"During the eighth party congress in 2006, we re-affirmed our ultimate
goal to lead the nation towards socialism," he said.
On Tuesday, Bouphavanh and other leaders of the Association of South
East Asian Nations will sign a charter that spells out ASEAN's desire
to strengthen democracy and protect human rights.
(Editing by David Fox)
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