Introduction - SEAsite - Northern Illinois University

Prentation Abstracts
Sianong Phomkong
Foreign direct investment in Lao PDR: Promotion Strategies
Former Deputy Director of Investment Promotion Division, Department for Promotion
and Management of Domestic and Foreign Investment, State Planning
Committee, Lao PDR
Historical Context
Since the Lao People’s Democratic Republic was established on December
2, 1975, the Lao government has been taking various actions aiming to develop
the country. These actions culminated when the government launched the New
Economic Mechanism (NEM) in 1986, moving from a centrally planned economy
to a market-oriented economy. A large number of state-owned enterprises became
privatized.
Implementing the NEM, the Lao government recognizes that foreign direct
investment (FDI) - with its capital, technology, and expertise - can play a crucial
role in the country’s economic development. To attract more FDI, however, the
government tends to emphasize only the liberalization of laws and regulations.
Current Problems
The government decided to open the country for FDI in 1988. It enacted
numerous laws and decrees directly and indirectly governing FDI, yet it has not
been able to ensure the effectiveness of these instruments. Furthermore, the Lao
Government has not marketed the country as a desirable investment destination to
potential foreign investors.
Competition among host countries is severe. Laos’s neighboring countries,
namely Vietnam, Myanmar and China, are also emerging countries. These countries
have advantages over Laos in terms of labor forces, domestic markets, sea
ports, and infrastructure for promoted investments. These countries are campaigning
hard for FDI. Furthermore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and other developing
countries in Southeast Asia are also doing their best to keep the investments
they have. Other countries worldwide are also encouraging FDI.
Recommendations
• In order to attract good quality FDI, that will bring the greatest benefit to
the country, the Lao Government must change its promotion strategies. The
government needs to have a clear understanding of
• what FDI is needed
• why the country needs FDI
• profitable sectors
• target investors
• Furthermore, the country should be ready for the investments it aims to attract.
An image should be created for the country to inspire Laotians and
foreign investors.
• Lastly, the Government should launch aggressive FDI promotion campaigns
inside the country and abroad.
Only by following these strategies will Laos succeed in attracting FDI and gain
more benefits from those investments.
Alan Potkin*, Mr. Chaleunxay Phommavongsa,** and Catherine
Raymond**
Linking the Lao Loum Diaspora in Northern Illinois with Cultural
Conservation Practice in Vientiane
*Team Leader, Digital Conservation Facility, Laos
**Founder, Black and White Studio, Vientiane; Principal consultant, Digital
Conservation Facility Laos
***Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Art History, Northern Illinois
University
As increasing wealth is generated within the Lao PDR, and also flows there
from outside, the traditional meritorious reconstruction of Buddhist Vats and sacred
sites has been accelerating everywhere around Vientiane. The aggrandizement
of so many temples, to the delight so many people in the bans, has clearly
sometimes come at a cost of disposing of undervalued assets —not all of them
material. The uniquely Lao “cultural capital” recently lost ranges from the superb
Phralak Phralam frescoes demolished with the old Vat Oup Mong vihaan, to an
obscure religious cult necessarily weakened by the proud refurbishing of Vat Chan
on the Old City waterfront: formerly the stark and austere royal seat for propitiating
Lord Sikhottabang’s well-deserved curse.
The conservation of Vat Sisaket —Vientiane’s sole religious monument in
more-or-less its original condition— is a special case in that the local abbot and
the ban cannot rehabilitate the cloistered museum complex on their own initiative:
a mixed blessing, as the surrounding improvements are plentiful. But the will
and the resources to reverse officially Sisaket’s appallingly rapid deterioration are
barely mobilized.
Existing Lao PDR legislation and decrees on archaeological and historical
preservation require formal authorization by the Ministry of Information and Culture
prior to the demolition or the rebuilding of major structures older than fifty
years. In principle, the decisions on what to protect and why, draw upon specialized
knowledge —inside and outside the government— of art and aesthetics; of
history and religion; and of touristic development and practical conservatorship.
How effective are these laws in actuality, how well-used is the available expertise,
and how can the constituencies for cultural preservation be mobilized and
strengthened?
We could now only guess the significance of remittances from overseas Lao
in the redevelopmentof temple compounds in the mother country, especially when
new vats are springing up across the Lao loum diaspora. As Lao immigrants in
North America both resist and embrace assimiliation****, what are their views on
the transformation of the Buddhist cultural landscape back in Vientiane? Are some
Lao becoming more sentimental, more preservationist towards previously-devaluated
relics of “underdevelopment”?
During the weeks before the FICLS, in cooperation with the Lao loum communities
of Burlington, Elgin, and Rockford IL USA we will have installed interpretive
materials and conducted workshops in one or more nearby vats, and will
present our methodology and findings to this Conference.
**** “The process in which one group takes on the cultural and other traits of a
larger group”, (Microsoft Word dictionary).
Elisabeth Preisig
Rice, Women and Rituals
Association for Research and Development, Vientiane, Lao P.D.R.
The paper explores the role of Kmhmu’ women in livelihood, more precisely,
the role in their rice culture. The careful study of the rice culture of the Kmhmu’
reveals an intimate relationship between rice and women. The ritual role of women
in Kmhmu’ rice culture demonstrates the independence and interdependence of
both sexes in the Kmhmu’ family and society, in the face of natural, and supernatural
powers.
Planning and development, or change, without the careful weighing of the
impact on this equilibrium could have a destabilizing effect on their society and
break down patterns of responsibility and authority, thus eroding social structure
and order.
Mountain rice fields cannot be done without reinforcement and help from others,
so people working together well form field clusters and do their fields in close
cooperation, helping each other out throughout the planting cycle. Apart from
physical strength rice as well as rice growers need some supernatural protection
and blessing.
While it is the men who perform most rituals and prayers in the life cycle of
people, and in connection with the ancestors, women share responsibility in field
rituals. In fact, some rituals in the fields even must be performed by a woman.
Following this lead conducts to most interesting results for the understanding of
Kmhmu’ social life and culture.
Boike Rehbein, Ph.D.
Lao Social Structure
Acting Chair of Sociology, University of Freiburg, Germany
The tendencies of globalization start to reach the hinterland of the global
periphery, to which the small country of Laos certainly belongs. What do the concomitant
changes mean for the country’s social structure? To answer this question,
the paper draws on the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Social structure is conceived
of as a hierarchy of “fields”, the structure of which is determined by the social
agents’ resources or “capital”. Globalization can be understood as a global dif-