ISP Working Paper Number 06-22

Fiscal Decentralization in the People's Democratic Republic of Lao

Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, Juan Luis Gomez, Guevera Yao, September 2006

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Abstract:

The People's Democratic Republic of Lao (Lao PDR), landlocked between Myanmar , Thailand , Cambodia , China , and Viet Nam in the core of Southeast Asia , accounts for a population of some 5.8 million over a total surface of 236,800 square kilometers. Latest estimates would place poverty rates at around 39 percent of households (ADB 2002). With an estimated per capita income of $320, Lao PDR stands among the poorest countries in Asia . Inequality, measured by an estimated Gini coefficient of some 0.36 (UNDP 2004) is high for such a low level of income. Lao's set of basic human development indicators rank the country 133 out 177 states in the Human Development Index (UNDP 2005).