There are also problems associated with land leases, or"land grab These are twofold: for cthnic minorities or indigenous people. their displacement puts them at risk of increased poverty and higher mortality; and for land deals uhemselves, lack of transparency in the process makes accountability and enrorcing land regulations increasingly difficult si For ethnic minorities and indigenous people living in rural areas, the land grabs continue uo drive them off arable larmland without adequate consulta or compensation. The UNDP has found that mortality rates rise up to 30 per cent for those rural poor who have been forced to abandon their traditional livelihoods and move to urhan areas. Furthermore faced with the impossibility of traditional framing practices. lack of other work kills and inadequate health and education facilities, the resettlcd communities are driven into deeper poverty. The problem is exacerbated by the loose enforcement of existing land regulations to compensate displaced populations. As a communist country, Laos retains the right to forcibly seize or redistribute land without prior consent. Although a 2005 decree requires investors to compensate resettled villagers affected in full or in part at replacement cost, implementation has often been picccmeal or non-existent, with little negotiation taking place between the villagers and the government. This unlawful deprivation of land shows how the country's natural resources have been"captured by an elite growing spectacularly rich while one third of thc population lives on less than $0.61 a day". Land seizures for rubber plantations by Vietnam's largest companies(HAGL) etnam Rubber Group(VRG), have been Hoang Anh Gia Lai and the particularly problematic. Put together, the two rubber giants have rights to more than 200,000 hectarcs of land concessions in Laos. Thesc dcals bave bccn financed by international investors, with International Finance Corporation OFO the private lending arm of the World Bank primarily investing in HAGL and the Deutsche Bank investing in both companies. 6 The non-transparent nature of investments resulted in a legal vacuum fuelling a land-grabbing crisis." The companies were also accused of turning a blind eye to the deforestation and human rights abuses of the indigenous people. These abuses include depleted fish levels in waterways
encroachment and destruction of sacred land, deaths of hundreds of livestock, and even sexual abuse by company employees as on 10 February 2014, indigenous communities filed an official complaint to the Compliance Advisor ombudsman(CAO) of the IFC on the unlawful abuses. International agencies aided in lodging this complaint, and in Cambodia, such complaints have culminated in the halting of HAGL's rubber plantation constructions from 28 April to 30 November 2014.39 There are hopes for similar outcomes in Laos, with VRG's announcements this year, that citizens will be allowed to submit formal complaints directly to the company, and of a community consultation and scheme across all twenty-one plantations in Cambodia and laos
natural resources of Laos, whether in mining, hydropower, or agriculture, as of well as in casino tourism, may have spurred Laos' economic growth"but the transformation has come at a high price for both local communities and the environment 41 China has replaced Thailand as the major source of foreign direct investment(FDI) in Lao PDR. The introduction of new cash crops as a result of Chinese engagement and the North-South Economic Corridor initiative have contributed to poverty reduction and the modernisation of agricultural practices, but have also widened the income inequality of households within the village and among villages. In addition, it appears that the profit distribution of contract farming has benefitted Chinese companies more than Lao farmers who have become dependent on the Chinese-dominated agricultural production and distribution networks due to asymmetric power relations. "Exacerbating the situation in the case of rubber production, those who could not afford to wait the seven to years until the plant reaches harvesting age had to give eight up their land rights and became agricultural labo to sustain their daily livelihoods"
As a result of such domestic policies and international engagement, while at an aggregate or macro level, Lao development can be seen to be making very satisfactory progress, at the level of individual human security and human development, governance performance leaves a lot to be desired. These policies can be seen as obstacles to achieving the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), where there has been moderate but uneven progress in 2014. Currently, 44 per cent of children under five remain stunted and 27 per cent are severely underweight. The 2013-14 fiscal year observed a slightly narrower fiscal deficit compared to 2012-13, but only as a result of cutbacks in public sector wages and benefits