PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2017

EDITOUR PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 10/17 www.petpla.net 14 Tour Sponsors: live in this extended urban area. With an average age of just 23 years, the majority of the rather young popula- tion has settled along the Mekong River while the mountainous regions are more sparsely populated. Cur- rently, around 40% of Laotians live in an urban environment and population growth has increased slightly since 2014. The literacy rate in Laos is low and often, early family involvement in agriculture is the cause of this situa- tion. It is calculated that today around two thirds of men and one third of women can both read and write. The main industry in Laos is agriculture; around 75% of the entire population work here, contributing barely 30% of the GDP, with a major- ity operating subsistence farms. And the situation for workers is precari- ous here as a result of the history of the country: despite the fact that Laos remained neutral during the Vietnam War, estimates indicate that in the 1960s and 1970s more than a quarter of a billion cluster bombs were dropped here by the USA, which is equal to 2.5 tonnes of explosives per inhabitant. The target here was the strategically important “Ho Chi Minh Trail” in the east of Laos, which had been constructed by the North Viet- namese troops to supply materials to the Vietcong fighting in the south and led through occupied areas of Laos and Cambodia. The Laos section was also controlled by the Laotian com- munist-nationalist resistant movement Pathet Lao, whose successors went on in 1975 to form the new one-party system government after the war. The consequences of the bombardment are devastating: today, around 80 million unexploded bomb charges are slumbering in Laotian soil, making for an enduring risk, particularly because of the high proportion of arable farm- ing and agriculture. The “Lao national Unexploded Ordnance Programme” (UXO LAO), a project financed by the development programme imple- mented by the United Nations, indus- trial countries and aid organisations, has set itself the task of making the population aware of the dangers and removing the unexploded bombs. From 1986 onwards, economic problems in the country’s planned economy have forced the government to open up internationally, taking a step towards a market economy and promoting the private sector, which has led to 7-9% economic growth. In 1997, Laos became a member of ASEAN and in 2013 a member of the World Trade Organisation WTO. Today the country is one of the fast- est growing national economies in the world and is dominated by relation- ships in trade and business with China, Vietnam and Thailand. Drivers of this development are the services sector, mining (mainly gold, copper and iron ore), energy generation from water power, industrial (plantation) agriculture and the slowly growing tourism sector. Besides electricity and mineral resources, the main export products are wood and coffee. Over recent years, economic growth has been between seven and eight per cent; generally however, industrial development is down sharply because of a lack of investment capital and a qualified workforce. Also, around one quarter of the Laotian popula- tion live in poverty. The government is aiming that by 2020, Laos will leave the group of least developed coun- tries – an ambitious project when the lack of industry is compounded by a rather rudimentary infrastructure, which the government will address with a regeneration project that like- wise tackles education and health. Of Macro-economic data Thailand Population (2016) 68.9 million Population growth (2016) 0.28% p.a. GDP (2016) US$ 406.8 billion GDP growth rate (2016) 3.2% GDP per capita (2016) US$ 5,901 Import / export (2015) US$ 202.0 billion / US$ 210.9 billion Import / export (2014) US$ 227.9 billion / US$ 227.6 billion National debt (2016) 41.2% of GDP Unemployment (2016) 0.6% Inflation (2016) 0.2% Macro-economic data Laos Population (2016) 6.8 million Population growth (2016) 1.4% p.a. GDP (2016) US$ 15.9 billion GDP growth rate (2016) 7.0% GDP per capita (2016) US$ 1,643 Import / export (2015) US$ 1.3 billion / US$ 0.7 billion Import / export (2014) US$ 1.1 billion / US$ 0.7 billion National debt (2016) 65% of GDP Unemployment (2016) 1.5% Inflation (2016) 1.6% Sources: Federal Foreign Office, GIZ (German Society for International Collaboration), GTAI (Germany Trade & Invest), WKO (Austrian Chamber of Commerce), World Bank Bangkok skyline and Chao Phraya river