Nothing against the Viet, they are hardworking people and encourage education. They have great food too and Sao Viet are beautiful. But we are quite different from the Viet, and closer to the Thai in terms of our origin, custumes and lauguages.
Nothing against the Viet, they are hardworking people and encourage education. They have great food too and Sao Viet are beautiful. But we are quite different from the Viet, and closer to the Thai in terms of our origin, custumes and lauguages.
You do not have to go far in history to see why the current Lao government does not cooperate entirely on Thailand to help its develop the Lao economy.
After the collapse of the Soviet Untion in the early 1990's, the Lao government began to open up Lao economy to free market enterprise and allow foreigns entities and indviduals to invest in Laos. The Lao governemt has almost no experience in conducting and regulating private enterprise, so it relied heavily on foreign capital and expertise, especially from Thailand. The economic crises of 1997 hit Asians economies hard and many countries suffered. Thailand cut aid and investment to Laos as it was looking after its own economy. Overnight, the Laotian economy was in trouble as capital dried up and businesses collapsed. The Laotians were lacking expertise and know-how on to manage this new crises. Again, it were the Vietnamese who came to help Laos with advice and the Chinese who came with money.
This shows Lao officials that it cannot entirely depend on Thailand on its transition to a market economy and that it old comrades are the one that it is still can count on.
Listen: Lao should be independent of Thai, Viet, Chinese, etc... Every neighbor can be both friend and enemy of you. When you are weak and insecure, they will take advantage of you. You talk like you are very weak right now and need someone to help you. The best strategy is: you have to be strong, know what you want, and get along with all your neighbors and keep you eyes opened. No big brothers, no eternal friendship, that's bullshIIt!