I came across this website recently and thought it was very interesting.

http://www.gluckman.com/Laos.html

However, the pace of change has been slow under the PDR's perestroika program, known as chintanakan mai, or "new thinking." In the most laid-back nation in Southeast Asia, the only operating speeds seem to be slow and slower still -- which is why foreign investors like to joke that the PDR really stands for "Please Don't Rush."

Others say the seeming inactivity is no illusion. "Laos is exactly like it was 20 years ago and it's exactly like it will be 20 years from now.

The motorbikes and music are beyond the means of most in Laos, where the average monthly wage is about $25.

The real problem here, is nobody has the big picture.

"The Chinese are everywhere," hisses his companion. "Once they arrive, with their cheap goods and hunger for our resources, the country will be ruined."

Vientiane says Thais have committed nearly $2 billion, or over 42% of all investments.
It's like Thailand is taking over.

But the end of aid from the Soviet states -- which once accounted for up to 80% of Laos's budget -- has forced the reclusive country to open up.

Yet Laos avoids encouraging tourism, apparently fearing exposure to too many foreign ideas.

All the international groups come here with big projects and big ideas. They don't really want to improve life here.

the UNDP has determined that 46% of Laotians are poor

Outside the fence, the people are still poor, whatever the percentage, and somebody is talking about a revolution.

Little has changed here in centuries, despite a steady procession of determined fix-it experts from China, Thailand, Vietnam, France, Russia and America. The Laotians like to say "baw pen nyang," meaning, It doesn't matter.