The capital city of Laos is emerging as an important node in the transnational, transportation network linking the Greater Mekong Sub-Region.
The capital city of Laos, Vientiane, is one of two capital cities located on the banks of the River Mekong. The other, closer to the river’s mouth, is Cambodia’s Phnom Penh. Vientiane is based on the east banks of the mighty river, on which some 50 million people depend for income and sustenance. On the western bank is the Thai city of Nong Khai and the two have been linked since the middle of the 1990s by the Friendship Bridge that was built with assistance from the Australian government. The Vientiane-Nong Khai link is becoming an important node in the emerging Greater Mekong Sub Region transportation network which will eventually link China in the north with Singapore in the south and Vietnam in the east with India in the west. Increasing trade and economic integration in this way is an important step in the three decades old vision of turning a battlefield into a marketplace.
Roads do not always benefit the people through whose land they run. Economic activities are certainly diverted to the sides of the roads – drive along any road in East Asia and witness the seemingly endless stream of food vendors, hawkers, petty retailers, restaurants and other services arrayed along either side. Yet the roads tend to divert these activities from elsewhere rather than create more economic opportunities. The roads also encourage people to move away from their home towns and villages in the hope of finding better work and this is associated with family breakdowns and related social problems. Some roads have facilitated the spread of HIV/AIDS as truck drivers stop at designated truck stop areas where sexual services are provided, according to the laws of supply and demand.
Vientiane, as the capital city, represents the centre of power for the ruling Communist Pathet Lao government and is the site for the most important governmental, cultural and religious buildings in the country. It is also a primate city, which means it is also the site for the bulk of what manufacturing and processing activities take place in what remains a very poor country. The Pathet Lao, after initially experimenting with agricultural collectivization and delegation of power, has designated Vientiane as both the primary driving force behind economic change and also the example that the rest of the country should follow. This is unfortunate in some ways because the capital city is the home of the dominant Lao Loum ethnic groups and many perceive that the Lao Loum, already the recipients of the bulk of government support, are enjoying a process which is further disadvantaging the poorer Lao people of the upland regions.
