Laos touts 40 years of stability, but critics decry debt, corruption and poverty
President Choummaly Sayasone marked 40 years of communist rule in Laos on 2 December touting the stability and security of his landlocked Southeast Asian nation, but some Laotians lamented their country’s corruption, rising debt and dependence on China and Vietnam.
2 December marked 40 years since the communist Pathet Lao took control of the country, a former French colony and six-century-old monarchy, and set up a socialist regime closely aligned to neighboring Vietnam. Laos became a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) in 1997 and joined the World Trade Organization in 2013.
The World Bank describes the nation of nearly 7 million people as a lower middle-income country with a GDP of $11.77 billion in current U.S. dollars. The CIA World Factbook, using the purchasing power parity formula, puts estimated 2014 GDP at $34.53 billion, ranking Laos 118th in the world, between Mongolia and Georgia.
