The Preparation Of Lao PDR To Integrate ASEAN Economic Community By2015

Globalisation is an interdependence among states. A single state is difficult to develop itself without jumping on the bandwagon with international community. Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is one of the countries in the South East Asian region; it is a landlocked country, located in the Indochina peninsular and shared borders with Cambodia, China, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. Since1980s, Lao PDR has been improving its economic policy from central planning to orient market-economy under "New Economic Mechanism"(NEM) to preparing into global economy integration. Lao PDR has joined the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) since1997and it signed an Agreement for the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) in1998, which means the Lao PDR has started its economy integration into regional. At the present, ASEAN is moving toward to build the ASEAN Community under three pillars as economic, political-security and socio-cultural community by2015it seems to be a good opportunity for Lao PDR to develop the country as well as achieving the goals of the government to lift the country out of the ranks of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by2020. Paralleling the opportunity, the poor infrastructure and lack of human resource are main challenges for Lao PDR to jump on the bandwagon with other countries in Asian region to move forward. This paper will concentrate on the economic development of Lao PDR before and after joining ASEAN and the preparation of Lao PDR to integrate into ASEAN Economic Community by2015.