Lao PDR

I. INTRODUCTION

The Lao People Democratic Republic is a land looked country, with an area of 236,800 square kilometers, composed of 17 provinces and 1 Special Zone, 134 districts, 11,950 villages, sharing a border in the north with People Republic of China, in the east with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in the south with Kingdom of Cambodia, and in the west with Kingdom of Thailand and Myanmar.

The Population is about 4.6 million with a density of 19.4 persons per sq km. The population remains predominantly rural, with 19 percent in urban areas, and is very mixed ethnically, approximately one-third belonging to 47 non Lao-speaking minority groups who have different dialects and traditions.

Famous among the national historical remains are: an ancient That-Luang in Vientiane Municipality; Luang-Prabang a World heritage city in the north; Wat-Phou Chainpassack in the south; and the Plain of Jares at Xieng Khuang in the east.

Lao PDR with its unique natural forest has some celebrated points of interest such as: historical temples in Vientiane Municipality; Luang-Prabang cultural sites; some widely known caves from the north to the south; some hot spring water sites and many waterfalls, particularly Khone-Papheng the biggest waterfall in south-east Asia.

The Lao currency is Kip with US $ 1.00 is equal to 9,300 Kip, and GDP per capita is US $ 350.00/person/year (in 1995). The main exports are the following: electricity, timber, garments, coffee and forest resource products.

In Lao PDR, there are 51 newspapers, and magazines belonging to the 44 different institutions such as: 3 daily newspapers published in three languages e.g. Lao, English, and French; 8 weekly; 12 monthly; 3 two monthly; 20 quarterlies; and 5 twice yearly. The publishing number of each title is around 300 copies to 15,000 copies. The oldest one Pasason which means population. It was founded in 1950 in honour of national liberation.

The amount of radio broadcasting at the local to the national level is now 19 stations with a broadcasting capacity from 1 kilowatt to 200 kilowatt, and a receiving range of 20 km to 450 km with a broadcasting-time from 6.00 hours to 15.30 hours per day.

In Lao PDR television is relatively new, but it has already 7 channels from 5 stations at the local to 2 stations at the national level with range of transmission-time from 2.30 hours to 12.00 hours per day.