gricultural plantations. Continuing insecurity, poor
infrastructure, and a bureaucratic and opaque government,
as well as tense relations between Thailand
and Laos, prevented most plantation-oriented investment.
However, relations between the governments of
Laos and Thailand began to improve after 1988 when
the Chatchai Choonhaven government in Thailand
shifted its foreign policy towards Vietnam, Cambodia
and Laos (former Indochina) significantly by declaring
that the Thai government wanted to transform
‘battlefields into market places’ [ao sanam lop pen
sanam kan kha].5
Laos experienced relative peace and
stability beginning in the 1990s, especially in the
south, where armed rebel activities ended in 1990
(Ruohomaki 2000). Even in northern Laos, where
rebel activity continued to linger on, conflict declined