I have spent a lot of time in Laos in the past two years..(160 days total) i have been all the way from Attapeu to luang namtha. I did homestays in remote villages and stayed in city centers....i have met aid workers and province governors and what i have learned is that the Laos government does not to seem to want to do anything for itself. They rely on outside  "help" for everything....they need a new bridge...the Thai will build and pay for it.... need a new dam...the french, thai ,and Chinese will build it, pay for it, and get the electricity from it for thirty years..(by the time laos gets the rights dam ,it will be no good anymore)     want a over priced golf course outside Vientiane...no problem lease the land to the Vietnamese for 30 years...displace the farmers from the land...replace their fertile land with land the is infertile....and let all these projects be built by non-native labor..   not to mention all the aid that is given to the country ..and how it is not spent on the people ..instead it is used to buy government officials to buy new Toyota hiluxs' amd prados....

The Loas government has no need to train workers because someone else is doing the work.....i hate to say it but Laos greatest treasure....its forests..its rivers..its wildlife ..are being sold to the highest bidder or traded to china ....all for what....dreams of big citys and industry?? Eco-tourism is the should be Laos main industry(like Costa Rica) but it wont happen...not only because the environment (forest,wildlife ect..) are nearly gone...but Laos has some strange fascination with attracting "millionaire" tourist....its not going to happen....there are not that many millionaires...and why would they go to laos....even in america....a rich country...1percent of the population has 99 percent of the money.... and they are not going to Laos....

i love Laos and it people...i plan on going back again next year..but it saddens me to see one of the most beautiful untouched places on earth disappearing under a communist dream of industry...

i listened a lao radio and so sad to hear the president of LAOS mr chounmany sayasone 's speech during the Pi mai Lao...

" attempt to do everything, try to do everything to win the support and aids from international organization and the WORLD " according to a speech of Mr president   .... wining to get the aids?? is it our strategy ??