Lamijo, Lamijo
Description
The thesis examines the Lao Bảo-Dansavanh cross-border trade
and economic activities in the Viet – Lao border areas. For
thousands of years the Lao Bảo area has long been a knot in
regional trade and saw violent see-saw battles during the US War
period.
After the end of the Cold War in 1990s, there was new a
perspective on how to develop the border not only in the context
of conflict resolution but also in terms of regional economic
development and...[Show more] integration among the bordering countries in
Southeast Asia. Several concept of the economic joint development
has become popular in the discussions about the border regions in
Southeast Asia since the 1990s, such as growth triangle, growth
areas, development triangle area of Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV),
and Greater Mekong Subregion Economic Cooperation Program
(GMS-ECP). As a result, borders are once again not viewed as
barriers to the relations between bordering nation states but
instead; borders are zones of contacts, economic development and
cooperation. The implementation of Đổi mới policy in 1986
and GMS-ECP in 1992 played an important role to the development
of Lao Bảo- Dansavanh cross-border areas. The development of
Lao Bảo cross-border areas is a result of several cross-borders
joint projects launched by GMS countries since 1990s, such as the
Cross-border Trade Agreement, the East West Economic Corridor,
and the Lao Bảo Special Economic and Commercial Area. These
agreements brought livelihood to thousands of has benefited not
only to the traders, porters (kéo hàng), money changers (đổi
tiền), entrepreneurs, and speed up movement of goods, people,
and services on both sides of the border.
This study focus on the local ethnic groups at the border, namely
the Vân Kiều, Pa Kô, and Kado, who have participated the
border economic activities. The benefits and opportunities have
not been evenly distributed. These people engage in a lower
economic chain, such as motor cycle taxi driver (Xe ôm), porters
(kéo hàng), and small traders selling unprocessed crops at low
price. They seem to be excluded from taking larger profit of
border development. While border development has boosted the
growth of both cross-border trade and economic activities, this
benefit is less than equally distributed among local peoples.
Items in Open Research are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.