Change is coming to sleepy Laos in the form of a $7.2 billion railway, set to carve its way through this war-ravaged nation. The costs are to be borne by the Laotian government, courtesy of a Chinese loan amounting to a staggering 86% of Laos' annual $8.3 billion GDP. The level of indebtedness has led some to condemn the scheme as the latest example of Beijing's inexorable expansion into Southeast Asia. Aghast economists fear that such exorbitant spending could saddle an already impoverished nation with an insurmountable deficit. Moreover, in Laos' shadowy police state, where even household-name dissidents are "disappeared" without a murmur of explanation, there are serious doubts on whether ordinary Lao could influence the course of a deal inked by their communist government, however unfavorable it may prove. Pockmarked by decades of war in the 20th century (per capita, it is the most bombed nation on the planet, according to the U.N.), Laos remains caught in a time warp, and by almost every indicator it is one of the world's poorest countries. Some progress is being made — Laos finally sealed World Trade Organization membership in February, and is eagerly awaiting the launch of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community, expected by 2015 — but most people live on less than $5 a day. Agriculture, generally subsistence rice farming, dominates the economy, employing four-fifths of the population and taking up half of GDP. "Laos is perhaps more than ever before looking for ways to increase its foreign direct investment and strengthen its economic standing in the region and beyond," Gretchen A. Kunze, Laos representative for the nonprofit Asia Foundation, tells TIME. (PHOTOS: China's High-Speed Rail) Lack of infrastructure remains a massive headache, however. The country has only ever boasted 6.5 km of antiquated railway, and so its population of 6 million makes do with a dilapidated road network that is little more than a chain of muddy potholes. To remedy this, a train route linking Kunming, in China's southwestern Yunnan province, with the Laotian capital Vientiane, and(http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&blog=19871253&post=81668&subd=timeglobalspin&ref=&feed=1)
Via: TIME GlobalSpin