OTHER STORIES

• It's Gambling Time Again, but Locals Still in Poverty
• As Hordes of Tourists Come, Heritage Goes
• Villagers Count Costs of Dam in Vietnam
• Criss-crossing Lives
• Two Stops Along the Economic Corridor
• For China, Xiaowan Dam a Reservoir for Progress
• HIV/AIDS is Far and Near

At one timeless moment under the scorching sun, as our Land Rover cruised up the hill, my Australian friend yelled excitedly, " Tank…Tank!"

A few metres on the left stood the remnants of what was once a gigantic military tank. But in the blink of an eye, dust encircled the tank like a scene from the war and hid it from our sight.

When we reached the top of the hill, hundreds of craters dotted both sides of the trail. These are bomb craters, markings that stood out among every other sign here, even that of the National Park itself.

Undoubtedly, this very hill in Laos' southern region was a key part of military strategy during the war. From 1965 to 1973, during the Second Indochina War, known to most of the world as the Vietnam War, Laos became the most intensely bombed country in history.

While my gaze lingered on the sight of wrecked military vehicles and bullets, I thought to myself that this hill is so alive with the signs of war…from the past to present. Traces of war were everywhere, from the newly cut asphalt road to the huge piles of pine trees being hauled downhill by Vietnamese labourers. Each and every tree was larger than one metre in circumference.

In times of war, it is essential that the people of a nation believe in solidarity, freedom and liberty, or even in the peace that might follow in the aftermath of war. In an economic war too, people must be taught to believe in the prosperity that awaits them in the future.

A journey from the remote district of Dak Cheung to Sekong town in southern Laos gave us a chance to get a broader picture of the region. Once in a while, vehicles of international aid organisations like AusAid and the United Nations Development Programme with the initials UXO (unexploded ordnance) passed by.

In the Second Indochina War, the flames of war raged over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia before they subsided in 1975. The Vietcong took a route through the trails in the region's west to transport troops and military hardware into Laos and Cambodia by avoiding the free-military zone in the central part of the country, and went by a roundabout way to attack South Vietnam.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail, back then, was a secret network of trails in the dense forests parallel to the Vietnamese border, one that had been deadly to U.S. forces. The trail stretched across the entire length of the mountain ridges in the eastern region of Laos, originating from Khammoun province, Savannakhet, Saravan and Sekong to Attapeu province in the far south-east of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Today, the Ho Chi Minh Trail still exists -- and is ready for the economic growth that has bombarded Laos in recent years. Small villages along the trail have dramatically grown into cities or districts, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail will soon be the Ho Chi Minh National Highway.

The supplies that pass through this trail have also changed through time. These days, people from the central to southern regions of Lao PDR get their electrical goods from Vietnam and China through Highway No 9 (in Savannakhet district) as well as construction materials and sanitation ware from Thailand.

In the meantime, Laos also uses this trail to export wood products and coffee to neighbouring countries like Thailand and Vietnam. And in the future, the Lao government will look to hydropower development as the primary source of income for the country.

In 1986, the country's pragmatic communist leaders inaugurated a 'New Economic Mechanism' or 'Chin-Thanakaan-Mai' to develop the economy. In recent years, Lao leaders have tried to reconcile with western countries and have undertaken a transition from "people's democracy" to export-oriented capitalism.

In the country's National Action Plan, Lao leaders promote hydropower and wood product development as important export opportunities for the country. This report shows that the Lao government has successfully generated 70 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through the development of hydropower resources and logging.

On my return trip to Sekong, the first person that entered my mind was Veephone Jor-a-sarn, a vice president of the Lao Nationalists, Sekong province.

He told me that normally, the Sekong-Dak Cheung route could be used only in the dry season. When it rains, the road gets flooded and all merchandise transported from Vietnam comes to a halt. He agreed that all would benefit from international road connections. But an influx of migrant labourers and backpacking tourists is the main threat to the local lifestyle. It is important that we educate our people about HIV/AIDS, he said.

I also ran into Vittayakorn Thongsane, a politician from the north-eastern Thai province of Kalasin, who journeyed up here on behalf of Vittayakorn Group International. His company has a deal with Lao PDR to construct a 200-kilometre highway to connect the province of Sekong to a deep-sea port in Vietnam under a 15-year maximum-term loan. The construction period is from 2002 to 2007.

Vittayakorn confirmed that this newly cut highway would soon to be a major exit to the South China Sea for Lao PDR. Logs and crops from north-eastern Thailand will be exported via the deep-sea port in Vietnam into China and Japan by way of this highway as well. "This road will work as a short cut from Thailand to China and Japan," he added.

I often went to the riverbank to watch the unspoken beauty of the sunset, but my heart always sank upon seeing at the scene in front of me…. trucks slowly transporting massive logs to the ferry.

Everyday, tonnes of logs from the national forests are brought across the river from Xai Sedtha and Phu Vong to many sawmills in the city. Sawn wood is then immediately transferred to Pakxe for the timber trade.

From the latest survey in 1989, Lao PDR's total forest area is about 11.6 million hectares, comprising about 47 percent of the country's land. Its still relatively abundant forest resources will last for 20 years, Thai businessmen predict.

Lao government officials claim that most of the forest depletion, especially in the northern provinces, is due to the slash-and-burn cultivation of 'Lao Theong' (highland Lao) apart from logging activities.

Most of the logging operations in Lao PDR are done by foreign companies, from Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. Under the forestry law, the owners of logging concessions shoulder the cost of the reforestation programme in their areas -- at the rate of 2 dollars per cubic metre.

But due to the lack of biodiversity of these newly grown forests, critics and the media have strongly criticised and disagreed with the government's policy on logging, and put Lao leaders under pressure. Hence, in the Lao leaders' minds, the promotion of logging activities in Lao PDR is not as sustainable and profitable as the development of hydropower dams.

Xe Kaman and Sekong are the two largest tributaries of the lower Mekong river. Together with the Sesan river in Cambodia, they contribute as much as 20 percent of the flow of the Mekong river. (All of the Mekong's tributaries in Laos contribute about 60 percent of the flow of the lower Mekong).

People have been living from the bounty of the river for centuries. Fishing and farming remain the way of life for most people living in the fertile valleys, floodplains and river deltas of the region.

Following the advice of the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Lao government has borrowed millions of dollars to develop 12 regional hydropower projects on the Sekong and Xe Kaman tributaries, and Houay Ho and Xe Pian-Xe Namnoi tributaries. These projects aim to construct 30 cascades of hydropower dams along the Mekong river and plan to export 3,000 megawatts of electricity to Thailand.

The hydropower generating capacity of Laos is expected by the ADB to reach more than 8,520 megawatts by 2007 -- and the Lao PDR government will profit from exporting hydropower in the amount of at least 2.5 billion dollars per annum.

This is thus a ray of hope for Lao PDR. Sooksomphone, a guesthouse manager, beamed as he told me one afternoon, " In the future, Lao will be like Brunei. They sell oil, we sell hydropower and we both get rich."

A longer version of this story, written under the IPS/Rockefeller media fellowship, 'Our Mekong: A Vision amid Globalisation', was published in 'Sarakadee' magazine in Bangkok.