Laos’ Economic Reckoning
January 26th, 2024
Via East Asia Forum , an article on Laos’ economy: Laos had the feeling of a nation moving ever closer to an economic reckoning in 2023, even though the outcome is likely to be ambiguous and protracted. While according to official statistics, Laos narrowly avoided an outright recession during the depths of the global COVID-19 […]
Read more »Laos’ Economic Woes Will Continue In 2024
December 18th, 2023
Via The Diplomat, a report on Laos’ economic woes: Most mornings your columnist must scroll through feeds of the latest Southeast Asian news headlines. The feed on Laos is, to put it mildly, beginning to get tiresome. For how many months can you read the same headline, “Lao PM Introduces New Measures to Tackle Inflation” […]
Read more »China’s Promise of Prosperity Brought Laos Debt — and Distress
October 14th, 2023
Via The Washington Post, an article on Laos’ economy, pushed into distress by BRI infrastructure loans: At speeds of almost 100 miles an hour, the Chinese-built train zips over the Mekong River and careers through dozens of newly bored tunnels as it travels north from the capital. At its last stop, near the Chinese border, […]
Read more »Wil Laos’ Economic Zones Boost Growth?
October 10th, 2023
Courtesy of Nikkei Asia, a look at Laos’ border economic zones: Lae joked with her 12-year-old daughter, feeding her sticky rice with chili paste aboard a high-speed train barreling through northern Laos’ rugged landscape on its way to the Chinese border. The cheery conversation took a darker turn when they’re asked about their destination – Boten. […]
Read more »Laos Is Not in a Chinese ‘Debt Trap’ – But It Is in Trouble
April 27th, 2023
Via The Diplomat, a report on Laos, which is disturbingly reliant on investment from China – and no one knows how much, or under what terms: China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) turns 10 this year. Much ink has been spilled, digitally and otherwise, about the global infrastructure project. The “debt-trap diplomacy” claims that arose […]
Read more »Thriving on China’s BRI, Laos Border Town Ditches Kip for Yuan
December 7th, 2022
Courtesy of NikkeiAsia, a report on how one Laotian town is thriving due to a BRI-funded railway connection: If you want to eat in the northern Lao town of Boten on the border with China, you better have some yuan on you. Boten is one of the cities that have been so changed by China’s […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.