Persistent Poverty in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
Experienced little economic expansion during the 1980s and 1990s
Vietnam is the most prosperous of the three, but is poor
Mid-1990s economic reform in the country: market economics with political forms of communist state
Laos and Cambodia face difficulties from rugged terrain, relative isolation, and ravages of war, government repression
Burma’s Troubled Economy
Low economic development, but has great potential
Abundant natural resources and fertile farmland
Warfare a major problem