BTI 2018 Country Report Laos This report is part of the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI) 2018. It covers the period from February 1, 2015 to January 31, 2017. The BTI assesses the transformation toward democracy and a market economy as well as the quality of political management in 129 countries. More on the BTI at http://www.bti-project.org. Please cite as follows: Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2018 Country Report — Laos. Gütersloh: Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2018. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Contact Bertelsmann Stiftung Carl-Bertelsmann-Strasse 256 33111 Gütersloh Germany Sabine Donner Phone +49 5241 81 81501
[email protected] Hauke Hartmann Phone +49 5241 81 81389
[email protected] Robert Schwarz Phone +49 5241 81 81402
[email protected] Sabine Steinkamp Phone +49 5241 81 81507
[email protected] BTI 2018 | Laos 3 Key Indicators Population M 6.8 HDI 0.586 GDP p.c., PPP $ 6186 Pop. growth1 % p.a. 1.4 HDI rank of 188 138 Gini Index 36.4 Life expectancy years 66.3 UN Education Index 0.505 Poverty3 % 58.5 Urban population % 39.7 Gender inequality2 0.468 Aid per capita $ 70.7 Sources (as of October 2017): The World Bank, World Development Indicators 2017 | UNDP, Human Development Report 2016. Footnotes: (1) Average annual growth rate. (2) Gender Inequality Index (GII). (3) Percentage of population living on less than $3.20 a day at 2011 international prices. Executive Summary The past two years in Laos were dominated by the Tenth Party Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) in January 2016, held every five years.