Lao Voices

Came across a presentation of Oudet Souvannavong, VP of the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who held a presentation at the regional Seminar on Informatisation July last year. The presentation was posted on the site of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for asia and the Pacific and contained a few notable items, such as:

• 95% of all companies in Laos are considered SME (Small and Medium Sized firms) which means they employ less than 100 people and turn over less than around $100,000 annually;
• There are five Lao ISPs operating in Laos: Planet On Line, Lanexang Internet Service (LIS) , Laotelecom, Laosky and ETL
• Lack of a good (online) payment system hinders the development of E-business in Laos;
• Most interesting statement from the presentation coming from a communist oriented government spokesperson: “Price of telephone calls and internet is getting cheaper and cheaper due to competition“. Competition is good? A big leap of thought there from communist thinking…

Here are the slides with more information.