Role and Opportunities for Foreign Investment and Its Risks for Rural Development in Laos

抄録

Recently, foreign investment has grown significantly in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) hence its macro-economic impact has been the subject of numerous research studies. However, there is a lack of stud-ies assessing the micro-economic impact of foreign investment in the rural areas of GMS countries. This paper (a) assesses the change in rural non-farm wage employment as a result of foreign investment and its socio-economic impact on rural people in Laos, (b) highlights the participation of women in a plantation pro-ject initiated by a Japanese company, and (c) analyze the effect of foreign invest-ment on people’s mobility patterns, the change on their interactions at local level and the risks for rural development. Data has been collected using purposive sampling methods with a total of 80 respondents from two villages and were se-lected randomly at a household survey in 2009. The respondents comprised 50% of men and also 50% of women in each village. Questionnaire survey, focus-group discussion and field observation were conducted. The results showed a significant change of income for rural people employed by the project, particular-ly for women. Improved women’s participation had provided opportunities for their empowerment and changed their mobility patterns. This, in turn, facilitated women’s networking with people with diverse status and experiences outside their village. This resulted in a slight change in women’s active participation in community meetings at the local level as well as their relations with men, chal-lenging existing socio-cultural norms. It was concluded that foreign investment can contribute to rural development by creating a non-farm rural employment op-portunities. However, it is also cautious to become excessively dependent on for-eign investment for rural employment opportunities since foreign investment have a high risk of changing condition in the global market.