Captioning sponsored by Annenberg Cpb narrator the geographic region of Southeast Asia and South Pacific is characterized by political and economic disparity, a mosaic of small countries scattered on peninsulas and islands. We begin in laos, Southeast Asias only landlocked country. A long history of isolation has protected its Natural Resources and indigenous cultures. Laos today is beginning to court the Global Economy through the sale of hydroelectric power. Here, we ask if laos can achieve Sustainable Development, generating Economic Growth while maintaining the integrity of its indigenous populations and its natural environment. The mekong river traces an 1,100mile path through or along the border of laos. The river has also been a barrier between laos and its neighbors. Now there is a road, where before there was none. In 1994, the friendship bridge gave laos its first land link with the outside world, through thailand to the west. The bridge may symbolize a connected future, but laos in the here and now remains among the poorest countries in the world. rooster crows it is the least developed country in the lower mekong basin. Life expectancy is low, about 53 years. rooster crows 43 of children here are malnourished. The potential changes brought by Economic Development are enormous. The soil here is rich and fertile. Laos remains a largely agrarian society. Lowland peoples practice wet rice farming. The capital, vientiane, has a population of just half a million. The rest of the 5½ million laotians are spread over 155 million square miles of land. Its the Second Lowest population density in asia and the least urbanized country in the region. Around laos lie the developing economies of thailand, china, vietnam and cambodia. The north of laos is almost entirely mountains, covering 70 of the country. Much of its western border is defined by the mekong river, a natural barrier to trade. The friendship bridge breached that barrier. Narrator somphavan inthavong is in the power business. He was an engineer on the first hydroelectric scheme built here in 1951. To him, these rugged mountains and flowing waters are a pot of gold. Laos produces far more electricity than it can use. The surplus, approximately 80 of the power generated, is sold to thailand at a profit. The dream is on a grand scale laos emerging to the world on an electricityled boom. Inthavong narrator the hydroelectric business could make enough money to power the improvement of theconomy and the standard of living her but laos cant pay for construction of the dams and generators. Traditionally, around the world, dam construction took the form of Massive Public projects grand symbols of national development, like egypts aswan dam. But laos is following a new model privatization. Woman globally, theres a trend towards privatization of Water Resources, and in laos this is taking the form of hydroelectric power generation. Not only is laos able to export electricity in and therefore earn hard currency which is necessary for it to be involved in the Global Economy but also, since the government of laos doesnt have the resources necessarily to develop largescale hydropower electric dams, the. Its being increasingly carried out by private corporations. Narrator this private development is carried out through something called a boot scheme, which stands for buildoperateowntransfer. Fox a private corporation will build, operate, own a hydroelectric dam for a specified number of years, and then at the end of that time when theyve recouped an agreedupon profit, they hand it back to. Hand it back over to the lao government. Narrator its hoped that further Hydroelectric Development will provide the money needed to lift laotian living standards. The government wants to reduce poverty from 40 to ten percent by the year 2010. But it is a daunting task. The lao economy remains largely agricultural. 80 of the population is rural. Only limited industry, such as cotton or silk, has begun in vientiane. Literacy rates are among the worlds lowest. Health care is another area of concern. Although immunization programs have reduced the threat of measles, infant mortality from other disease remains high. There is little sewerage or access to health facilities. Theres a very low Immunization Coverage around 30 , on the national average, and this is the. Is the lowest in asia, and theres only a few countries in africa that are lower. The children are dying primarily of malaria, diarrheal diseases and upper respiratory infections. Narrator for most people, the only fresh water comes from wells. Ironically, in a country that exports more electricity than it can consume, only eight percent of the rn is connected to the electric grid. This situation reflects an urban bias. Fox an important critique of dams is that they serve urban areas more so than rural areas. So, for example, many of the dams in laos will be selling energy to thailand and that will go to bangkok. And, ironically, often people who are displaced by dams or who are impacted in some way in the rural areas will not see the benefits in terms of electricity. Narrator displacement of People Living in areas targeted for dam construction is only one fact of Hydroelectric Development, whether privately or publicly funded. Fox all around the world, tens of millions of people have been displaced by largescale dams. In laos, it does disproportionately impact ethnic minorities who live in the highland areas where the dams are being built. So theyre resettled away from the reservoir areas and theyre also resettled away from the mountains and highlands above reservoirs. Narrator another problem with resettlement in laos is aegacy of the vietnam war. Laos was caught in the crossfire as the u. S. Bombed the ho c mh trail. Fox 1. 9 million tons of ordnance were dropped on laos, and much of it remains in the landscape unexploded. This creates landscapes of uncertainty. So when people are resettled for example from a highland area where they practice shifting cultivation to a midland or a lowland area where they must grow wet rice or some other unfamiliar crop, not only might they be exposed to unexploded ordnance, but if people need to supplement their food source or their income because theyre unfamiliar with the techniques required to grow lowland rice, they may return to forests as familiar sites. And these are places in laos that tend to have very high levels of unexploded ordnance still today. Narrator there are ecological concerns for lowland dwellers as well. People here continue to depend on seasonal flooding along the mekong river for their Food Production and livelihoods. Dams even out the flow of water, creating problems for people practicing floodrecession agriculture. So during the dry season, the banks are exposed and people grow all sorts of vegetables on them, and during the wet season, theyre inundated and silt sediments are deposited on the banks. So a hydroelectric power dam would essentially eliminate that agricultural landscape. Narrator laos is not a democracy. Even if local people wish to protest the elimination of their landscapes and lifestyles, they have few options. Fox geographers might think of them as powerless place, and these corporations, in a world of globalization and global finance, might be thought of as placeless power. And when those come together in time and space, it can have perhaps some unprecedented geographical impacts. I think the question needs to be. Needs to be asked, is this a viable longterm Development Strategy . Will it. In 30 or 40 years, will these dams still be generating enough electricity to produce significant revenues, and even though it may increase the total g. N. P. Or Gross National product of laos, how will it actually impact people. Narrator but for now, laoss plans for engagement in the Global Economy are focused on exploiting its Water Resources and overcoming its geographic isolation by developing its transportation infrastructure. New roads are planned to link china and thailand with seaports in vietnam. Sutherland the countrys going to open up very quickly, and thats going to bring a lot of good to the country. But theres also a danger that it will bring a lot of influences, particularly from thailand, that are not so good. Fox thailand and laos are sort of analogous to the u. S. And canada. The cultures seem very similar, but thailand is very dominant in a way that the u. S. Is very dominant, and there is anxiety among the laos. They want to be like thailand in many ways, but are also fearful of the influence of thailand. And you can see this, for example, in Something Like the spread of hiv aids, which is a very serious problem in thailand, and one that the lao government is, you know, anxious to deal with before it becomes a serious problem in laos. Narrator for some laotians, the pull of the Global Economy is irresistible. Inthavong i think its a question of trying to make the best of that change to take the good things and leave the bad aside. And itll be interesting to see whether the social development can keep pace. Fox laos is a country that has many possible futures. It is a country that still has pristine forests and freeflowing rivers. Laos is a country that may be able to structure its development in a way that is truly Sustainable Development that actually leads to an increased standard of living, but not at the expense of the environment, or of a very special and distinct culture. Inthavong narrator although its history and geography have long isolated laos from its neighbors and the world, today it is increasingly connected to the Global Economy. As it generates growth through the sale of hydroelectricity, the need to build more and more dams may put local cultures and biodiversity at risk. The question of Sustainable Development in laos remains. With increasing global connection, who will hear the local voices . In the region of Southeast Asia and South Pacific, vietnam is a country whose name is forever etched in the american psyche. Today, this determined nation is steadily coming to terms with its wartorn past and is experiencing rapid Economic Growth. Here we explore how vietnams physical geography has been key to its Economic Development, the shift from collective to commercial agriculture, and the growth of urban centers like Ho Chi Minh City. Abundant water and the silt thats been deposited here over thousands of years makes the mekong delta one of the most fertile regions on earth. speaking vietnamese translator i grow three crops of rice a year. Each yields about 1,200 kilograms a total of 3,600 kilograms a year. When the price is good, i sell this rice, but if the price is not good, then ill save it. Narrator 3,600 kilograms, or nearly 8,000 pounds, is a respectable yield. Improved agricultural practices have steadily increased rice output. When the mekong river enters vietnam, it fans out to form a giant delta. The delta land is ideally suited to growing rice. Yet in the late 1970s, vietnam was on the verge of famine. Translator i grew only one crop a year. Because there was no irrigation, there wasnt enough water to grow more than one crop. So we didnt produce enough. Ator e land was being compromised by the waywas used. Changes since then have turned vietnam into the worlds second largest rice exporter. Effective irrigation, Land Management and access to World Markets are helping vietnam maximize the benefits of its physical environment. Before 1988, rice in vietnam was produced by collectives. Individual farmers had little responsibility for their land and virtually no incentive to increase productivity. man speaking vietnamese translator in the collective system, farmers are just hired hands. Everything they produce becomes the collectives property. The collective then tries to sell the produce to pay the farmers according to their labor contribio narrator in the 1990s, a marketoriented contract system was installed. The collectives were disbanded, reinstating the individual farmer as the linchpin of rice production. Translator in the contract system, the farmers profit from whatever they produce; theyre wholly entitled to the fruits of their labor. Narrator the move from collective to commercial farming also created another success story. The hill country to the north, between hue and saigon or Ho Chi Minh City is a perfect climate from where to grow coffee. Narrator vietnam is now the worlds second biggest producer, just behind brazil. Coffee output here now has the power to affect the global price. Coffee is one of the most important Agricultural Products traded on a global scale and does represent an opportunity for the vietnamese to earn a lot of export dollars. Vietnam has ideal growing conditions for a number of very important and exotic crops, and in terms of being able to produce desirable export, agricultural exports, it really has a very important comparative advantage that way. Narrator farmers like le van than still dont own land. Theyre given landuse certificates, guaranteeing a farmers right to use the land. These rights are valid for at least 20 years. And farms still cooperate. But now its done on a commercial basis. When le van than needs a tractor, he hires one from his neighbor. In peak periods, he employs outside help. Dueach village usually hasre a machine for husk removal. But often farmers decide to sell their grain to a larger mill that serves a wider area. Here, too, policy has changed. Once, all of these mills were government owned and run. Now many, like this one, are in private hands. Its highly efficient; very little is wasted. Grain dust is fed to pigs. These husks are used as fuel for cooking. The rice is moved to market in a number of ways. The mekong delta has a welldeveloped road system built by the french when they controlled the country and extended by americans during the vietnam war in the 60s and 70s. Along with the use of road transport, half of the rice is transported by boat. In addition to its natural waterways, vietnam has a vast network of canals more than 11,000 miles in all. Given that water is so plentiful in the mekong delta, it seems ironic that when le van than began farming, he and his fellow farmers suffered water shortages. Translator before 1978 here, we only grew one rice crop. From 1979 on, thanks to irrigation, we could grow two crops. Since 1990 and91, weve been growi three crops. Narrator better irrigation made the increase possible. But getting water from the rivers to each rice field at the correct time requires extensive organization. man speaking vietnamese translator to bring water into the paddies, there are two ways that work. One is the stateowned system with the large pumping stations. We invest money for those stations. The other way is that some households can do the pumping themselves or they can go together with other families to form a group of people for pumping water into the paddies. Naor thaha t mekong de is now uervation. This is my tho, the chief town in le van thans province. Most of its 100,000 people are involved in some way in the rice growing system. Farmers come here to buy supplies such as seed and fertilizer and new machinery. ducklings peeping progressive farmers are also integrating otr food or incomeproducing activities into their land. Translator in addition to working in the rice fields, we keep some farm animals chickens and pigs and we have a fish pond. Compared to rice growing, Animal Husbandry is better. Rice profits depend a lot on market fluctuation. Fish and meat prices depend on the market, too, but not as much. Narrator a little mor 4le of t iserly known as saigon. It is the most densely populated area of vietnam, home to almost five million people. The city embraced the socalled open door policy introduced by the government in 1986 to stimulate the economy. Daniere Ho Chi Minh City is the Economic Center of the country. Hanoi is the political, cultural, bureaucratic center of the country, located thousands of miles away. Building on its history of an Economic Center, saigon and Ho Chi Minh City has reemerged as a flourishing place to conduct capitalist globalization business. A number of very large multinational corporations, for example, have located in and around Ho Chi Minh City and employ hundreds of thousands of vietnamese to work in their factories. Vietnam has tried to encourage partnerships with vietnamese Stateowned Enterprises and private multinationals to set up jointly owned factories. Shoes, clothing, paints, chemicals, radios i mean, you name it, theyre doing it. Narrator Ho Chi Minh City is the rice Industrys Center as well. Rice from the provinces arrives at places like the binh tay mill. In 1994, it became the first mill in vietnam to supply rice to the united states, where this shipment is headed. Other shipments go to the middle east and elsewhere in asia. Daniere its a wonderfully located city in terms of export potential. Its ideally located to ship things in and out. Narrator vietnam has successfully transformed its rice industry by establishing clear rights of control over land, by making effective use of irrigation and by ensuring ready access to World Markets. Anperhaps most importantly, its due to the efforts of Farming Families like le van thans. They are changing a long history of rice farming in the mekong delta. Now they are not only feeding vietnam, but helping build a major sustainable export industry. Vietnam has been one of the most rapidly growing countries of the last decade. We see this in the booming urban center of Ho Chi Minh City. One key to this development has been vietnams physical geography, along with a shift from collective to commercial agriculture. For now, there is no reason to expect that vietnams growth should not continue well into the 21st century. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org you have the right to remain silent. You have the right to be heard. Anything you say can be used against you. 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