‘Too few jobs and too much debt’: UN rights envoy warns Laos of favouring China’s belt and road over its people
- UN rapporteur said the impoverished economy’s current strategy of favouring big-ticket Chinese projects and granting big concessions for land and resources is leaving many citizens behind
A United Nations human rights expert has urged communist-ruled Laos to focus less on foreign-invested dam and railway contracts and devote more resources to helping its children and the poor.
The UN rapporteur on poverty, Philip Alston, said Laos’ impoverished economy can only thrive if its leaders do a better job of educating and caring for all of its people. The current strategy of favouring big-ticket projects with Chinese investors and granting big concessions for land and other resources favours a wealthy elite and is leaving many others behind, he said.
Alston made the remarks in a news conference live-streamed from Laos’ capital, Vientiane, after he toured parts of rural Laos, including an area devastated by a dam collapse last year.
It added to a chorus of concern over China’s push for big construction projects linked to its “Belt and Road Initiative”, which is aimed at weaving a global network of transport and trade that is integrated with its own economy and industries.
Tucked between Thailand, China, Myanmar and Cambodia, tiny Laos’ economy has grown quickly in recent years, but the benefits of that growth have not reached many in its largely rural population.