Laotian Chinese
[14][3] According to a 2015 presentation by Professor Choi Ho Rim, the contemporary Laotian Chinese are estimated to effectively control approximately 99 percent of the nation's entire economy.
[16][3][4] Many Laotian entrepreneurs and investors of Chinese ancestry play a leading role in the Laotian economy specializing in diverse business areas and industry sectors such as shipping, textiles, mining, casinos, bars, nightclubs, banking, construction, airlines, real estate, tobacco, fashion, health clubs and fitness studios, medicinal healing clinics, cannabis and pharmaceutical drug dispensaries, bakeries, catering and patisseries, laundromats and dry cleaners, ice cream parlours, cinemas and movie theatres, car washes, cafes, hotels, lodging houses, department stores, supermarkets, grocers, corner shops, gas stations, spas, commercial printers and photo shops, garden centres and nurseries, tour operators, hotels, cement mixing, restaurants, cafés, teahouses, vehicular dealerships, electrical appliances, heat, ventilating, and air conditioning services, machinery, metal fabricators, retailers, and repair shops.
[17][4][18][19] Expatriate Chinese investors from abroad have made inroads by percolating their involvement in various Laotian commercial activity sectors such as food, consumer durables, electronics, automobiles, hospitality, retail, education, consulting, machinery, health care, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, industrial manufacturing, and construction.
[7][8] Chinese real estate investors are also the city's dominant power players in the local property market as are numerous Chinese construction companies and real estate developers who operate as the city's top dogs in managing, investing, and running some of Vientiane's largest commercial property development projects such as the Sanjiang International Shopping Centre, Vientiane Centre, and Latsavong Square.
[23] ASEM Villa and Don Chan Palace, two of the largest and most prestigious five-star hotels in Vientiane are well known establishments recognized for accommodating expatriate Chinese businessmen.
Some Lao merchants have observed that Chinese counterparts tend to conduct business among themselves, primarily operating within an insular community by forming an exclusive group based on ethnic ties while retaining their profits within a closed enclave.
[30] By the end of the fifteenth century, the Kingdom of Lan Xang gained its economic efflorescence as a result of the prosperity engendered by the Southeast Asian caravan trade.
[31] Expatriate Hui caravan merchants and traders acted as intermediaries between the Laotian highland and lowland as their commercial activities of supplying and collecting from the Laotian highland energized the Kingdom's economy alongside the various Southeast Asian trade routes in addition to reaping the economic prosperity presided by the Chinese which acted as a major tax revenue stream for the Lan Xang monarchy.
[32] Many of the Han immigrants whom eventually settled down in Vietiane, Pakse, Savannakhet, and Thakhek traced their ancestry to the Southern Chinese provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan.
[33] Starting off their humble migrant beginnings as coolies for the French Colonial Empire in Laos, the Chinese soon began to flourish and eventually dominated the Laotian economy based on the Confucian paradigm of networking.
[33] In order to secure and protect their economic interests, the Chinese banded together along ethnic lines to what the French colonialists denoted as congrégations (huiguan 会馆 or bang 帮).
[33] The French colonial economic structure that was utilized as an instrument to extract agricultural produce and the distribution of rudimentary consumer durable goods was nonetheless heavily dependent on the massive labyrinth of business networks controlled by the Chinese middlemen.
[38] In other places such as Boten bordering near the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, large Chinese enclaves have sprung up with parts of the city being converted into areas of attraction to lure tourists, foreign investors, and gamblers.
[39] Throughout 2005 to 2006, Chinese merchants and traders have emerged as the country's dominant players carving out new market induced niches across Oudomxay, Muang Sing, and Luang Namtha through setting up shops and peddling cheap Chinese-made clothing, fashion and travel accessories, cosmetics, consumer goods, electrical appliances, and various food items to the indigenous Laotian populace.
[44][42] Moreover, a rising number of hotels, guesthouses, bed-and-breakfast lodges, inns, and restaurants have emerged to accommodate the needs of expatriate Chinese merchant traders, workers, and tourists.
[50] Many of these newly settled Han migrants run their own restaurants, guesthouses, ironmongers, and small scale retail stalls hawking and peddling cheap Chinese-made and imported machinery, tools, household implements, mobile phones, electronics, motorcycles, and other consumer goods to the indigenous Lao masses.
[50] The Chinese also pioneered the Laotian agricultural sector whereby acting as intermediaries and agents for mainland Chinese farming companies, have played a major role in the growth and expansion of numerous Laotian agribusinesses ranging from rubber manufacturing, sugarcane farms, fertilizers and seed provisions, dealing with customs, as well as supplying and transporting finished agricultural products to indigenous Lao farmers at superior pricing rates.
[52] Laos today presides over some 66,000 acres of banana farms, much of which has come under the ownership of expatriate Chinese investors due the country's enormous land size and abundance of cheap labour.
[54][55][39] The Chinese are also heavily involved the Laotian agricultural export trade, investing much of their incoming capital in lucrative cash crops such as maize, corn, bananas, cassava, sesame, watermelon and soy beans.
[27] New waves of Han Chinese migration to Laos since the 1990s have led to the resurgence of economic influence long held by the Chinese, many of whom have started their own businesses by operating as small shopkeepers, traders, and hawkers involving in numerous industry sectors in shipping, transportation, computer hardware, tools, household implements, motorcycle repair shops, cell phone stalls, hotels, restaurants, and beauty salons.
An influx of capital from mainland China has led to new construction projects in northern Laos with hydraulic infrastructures, prospecting, high-yield plantations, and textile factories.
The presence of these valuable resources, coupled with the country's economic growth potential, has proven to be a significant factor in attracting Chinese companies to invest in Laos.
[64] Notable initiatives spearheaded by Chinese investment in Laos has been channelled into a variety of significant projects spanning multiple sectors including economic cooperation zones, railway infrastructure, power grid development, hydropower facilities, real estate ventures, and the deployment of a communication satellites.
These various projects highlight the substantially diverse contributions made by Chinese investment in Laos across a spectrum of industries and sectors vital for the nation's growth and development.
