[Tlc] L-shrinking land in Laos

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Please see two stories on Chinese development and
deforestation in Laos below.
Best,
justin

2007-1205 - RFA - Laos Concedes Land to China in Vientiane for
Luxury Development

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/2007/12/05/lao_china/

Radio Free Asia
English

Laos Concedes Land to China in Vientiane for Luxury Development
2007.12.05

Lao village. Photo: Simon Gurney

BANGKOK—Laos has agreed to a major land concession to Chinese
investors to develop a Suzhou-style “model city” on the
outskirts of the country’s capital, Vientiane, according to a
well-placed source in Laos.

Under the terms of the agreement, China will hold the
site—several hundred hectares around the That Luang Buddhist
monument—on a 100-year lease, with permission to develop
surrounding marshlands, a Lao government official told RFA’s
Lao service.

The official, who declined to be named, was concerned that the
Lao government had signed over the land in lieu of the
repayment of hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars’ worth of
interest-free loans.

“In this area, China has a program to build a new city like
Suzhou—which is renowned for tourism, with its many bridges
and variety of trees and vegetation,” the official said. “In
addition, they will build a development of luxurious homes for
wealthy Chinese, and in addition, thousands of Chinese
families will move in and live on this land.”

The official said he was unsure why the government would allow
potentially large numbers of Chinese nationals to come and
live in the area, to the northeast of the Lao capital.

He said he feared the establishment of a large “Chinese city”
close to That Luang, which is a potent monument to Lao
nationalism.

China’s presence in Laos has intensified rapidly since it
organized a financial bailout of the impoverished country in
the wake of the Asian financial crisis.

Since 2000, Beijing has poured money into Lao infrastructure,
including a “land bridge” through which Chinese goods can flow
into Thailand.

Pha That Luang, which means “Great Stupa” in Lao, was built in
the 16th century under King Setthathirat on the ruins of an
earlier 13th century Khmer temple. This was built, according
to tradition, on the remains of a third century Indian temple
built by Buddhist missionaries.

Relics of the Buddha are said to be kept in the stupa, whose
architecture includes many references to Lao culture and
identity, and has become a symbol of Lao nationalism.

China has also expressed a strong desire to increase imports
of natural resources from Laos, including timber, iron ore,
copper, gold, and gemstones.

In 1997, China helped bail out the Lao economy by increasing
aid, trade, and investment through a series of bilateral
agreements covering economic and technical cooperation,
investment and banking, and infrastructure development.
Crisis loans

Beijing also provided generous export subsidies and
interest-free loans which enabled Laos to stabilize the value
of its currency during a crisis in 1998-99 to the tune of U.S.
$1.7 billion, according to official Chinese media. The new
relationship was cemented with the visit by then President
Jiang Zemin to Laos in November 2000, the first by a Chinese
head of state, and Beijing agreed to cancel much of the Lao
debt in 2003.

Two-way trade grew from U.S. $33.1 million in 1990 to U.S.
$118.3 million in 2003, much of it in China’s favor, according
to figures compiled by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). China
is officially Laos’s third biggest trading partner, although
far more trade is known to occur unofficially across their
common border than is ever recorded by officials.

In 2004, the government-controlled Vientiane Times said the
cumulative total of Chinese investment in Laos since 1988 had
reached U.S. $342 million, making China one of the top three
foreign investors. Experts say China and Vietnam are strategic
competitors for influence in Laos.

Original reporting by RFA’s Lao service. Service director:
Viengsay Luangkhot. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta
Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

© 2007 Radio Free Asia
Original reporting in Lao

Radio Free Asia

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2007-1205 - VOA - Laos: Land Concessions Lead to Shrinking Forests

http://www.voanews.com/lao/2007-12-05-voa3.cfm

Laos: Land Concessions Lead to Shrinking Forests
By Songrit Pongern
05/12/2007

Songrit reports in Lao, 1.13 MB audio clip
Listen to Songrit reports in Lao, 1.13 MB audio clip

Lao authorities acknowledge that land concessions to foreign
investors have created problems, with many concessions
encroaching upon private properties and protected areas,
allowing for illegal logging, and leading to the shrinking of
national forests.

Officials say problems of improper land concessions have
occurred mostly due to lack of accurate land surveys or double
allocations by central and provincial authorities. One bad
example is the land concession for the Se Kaman 1 dam project
in Attapeu province, which provides no clear-cut boundaries,
causing over-deforestation.

In 1940, forests covered 70% of Laos' land, spanning an area
of 17 million hectares. That figure has now dropped to 35%.

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu