Outline of Laos

[1] Laos borders Burma (Myanmar) and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west.

Laos traces its history to the Kingdom of Lan Xang or "Land of a Million Elephants", which existed from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century.

A long civil war ended officially when the communist Pathet Lao movement came to power in 1975, but strife between competing between factions continued for several years.

Private enterprise has increased since the late-1990s when economic reforms, including rapid business licensing, were introduced.

Eighty percent of the employed practice subsistence agriculture.