ABSTRACT
It could be argued that few Asian countries are more aware of the potency of global forces, and the impact of external trends, than Laos and Vietnam. At first glance such an assertion may appear strange, particularly for two economies that were wholly closed to all foreign business before the late 1980s. Indeed, these two countries are regarded by many as insular, led as they are by avowedly communist parties that remain ambivalent towards the economic development orthodoxy held by most nations in East Asia.2 But with the exception of highly externallyoriented economies like Singapore and Hong Kong, it is hard to identify other countries in Asia that have been more exposed to external economic and political forces this century than Laos and Vietnam. Both Laos and Vietnam were French colonies, and while the former was a ‘colonial backwater’, the latter was on the receiving end of substantial French capital inflows during the first three decades of the twentieth century.3 Although neglected by French capital, the current Lao state was created by the French administration, at least in terms of its current borders and territorial extent, having previously constituted three petty kingdoms, outlying parts of which were subsequently absorbed by neighbouring countries.4
