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People now have greater access to the mass media than before. As the demand for newspapers and magazines increased, so did circulations. Transportation to provincial cities and many rural towns became possible and thus helped print media products from the capital to reach more readers. Radio and television networks developed and there has been rapid growth in the number of radio and television sets since 1985.
Besides the development of local media, there has also been a greater flow from abroad. Foreign newspapers and magazines have appeared in towns where there is reader demand and satellite dishes have appeared not only in Vientiane, but also in remote and mountainous areas. In addition, the public has access to the Internet and Internet caf?s have been established in big cities and also in rural towns. Towards the end of the 1990s the Lao Government started its own news websites (such as http://www.kplnet.net and http://www.vientianetimes.gov.la) to provide readers with news and information.
In fact, in Laos the number of people who are able to access to the Internet is minuscule. They are government officials, media people, business people, intellectuals and university students, who surf for news and information, often from Internet cafes. The Lao Government does not prevent people from accessing foreign media.
The mass media in the period 1986-2000 has grown both in quality and in the variety of texts it carries. Both the Government's own policy of economic reform and the inability to close off the transport of global media products across borders suggest that the Lao media will continue to change to attract more audiences.
By continuing the policy of reform, a goal has been set to reach an economic growth rate of at least seven percent per year during the period 2001-2010. The expected continuing economic growth will help the Government to invest more in all sectors, including the mass media. Investment in the mass media and culture has increased from two billion Kip (1994-1995) to forty nine billion Kip for the 1999-2000 period (National Statistical Centre. Lao. 2000). It is projected that the Government will continue to invest 52.03 billion Kip (US$1.00 = 10,330 Kip on 21/08/02), approximately 2.6 % of State budget in 2000-2001 (State Planning Committee. Lao. 2000). There are plans to improve and upgrade the quality of radio and television broadcasts, and of newspapers and magazines to extend media's reach throughout the whole population (Phommachanh 1997).
Besides government investment, the mass media is also encouraged to obtain income from other sources. Decree No 36 on Increasing the Party Leadership and State Management in the Mass Media in the New Period, which was adopted by the Party Central Political Bureau on 19 June 1993, indicates that media organizations must find ways to earn income to meet their own expenditure. Since then the media have taken new steps, such as selling papers at a profit and accepting advertising as ways to earn income. There is a conviction within the industry that competition between media may also generate future growth.
The current government policy is based on the assumption that the combination of government investment and the earnings of media organizations will accelerate growth in the mass media, increasing their number and improving the quality of radio and television programmes and the Press. In addition, the technical and professional bases of the mass media are expected to be upgraded.
Another factor which will encourage the Lao mass media to change is the national infrastructure. Laos is in the centre of the Indochina peninsula, sharing borders with China in the north, Burma in the northwest, Thailand in the west, Cambodia in the south, and Vietnam in the east. Laos is thus at the cross-roads between countries in the region. The Government has tried to change its status from a land-locked to a land-linked country, by constructing new roads, upgrading roads linking neighbouring countries and building bridges across the Mekong river. Khamtay Siphandone, the President of the Lao PDR urges developing infrastructure, stating: 'in the years to come, we should continue to build, improve and expand some key economic structures such as national highways, highways linking the sub-region and important local roads, bridges, hydropower plants and a national electricity transmission network, modern communication systems…, railways, airports, expansion of airline routes, improvement of water transport and others…'(2001, p.5).
The Government aims to continue this policy and in 2000-2001 it will invest 753. 66 billion Kip (about 37.6 % of State investment) in transportation, a vast amount compared to expenditure in most other sectors (State Planning Committee. Lao. 2000). Route No 13 through the country from Cambodia to China has been improved, Route (Songmek-Wernkham) in Champasak province linking Thailand and Cambodia has been completed and the most strategic Route No 9 to the sea in Vietnam, destroyed during the Indochina war, was rebuilt after the establishment of the Lao PDR in 1975 with the cooperation of the former Soviet Union, Vietnam and the Eastern Block. However, as it was in poor condition, it has been revitalised with Japanese aid and a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Vientiane Mai 10 Jul 2000, p.3). A railway link from Vientiane (Laos) to Nong Khai (Thailand) is planned in the near future.
Besides roads linking Laos and neighbouring countries, bridges across the Mekong river have also been constructed. The first built in 1994 with Australian aid links Laos and Thailand. The second was completed on 2 August 2000 in the southern province of Champasack with Japanese aid. A third bridge is on the focus to link Savanakhet in Laos and Mukhdaharn in Thailand. Anderson (1998, p.29) has predicted that Lao-Vietnam trade and transit trade through Laos would grow when the Mekong bridge and road link to Vietnam and Thailand across southern Laos were completed.
Good roads will clearly help the transport of print material. Media organizations located in Vientiane will have more potential to send their products to provinces by road. Foreign print media brought from Thailand, Vietnam and China will also flow more easily into Laos. Television receivers, radio sets, satellite dishes, computers, newsprint and other media goods are currently being imported through Thailand, China and Vietnam, transported mainly by road, over the Friendship Bridge across the Mekong river from Nongkhai (Thailand) to Vientiane (Laos).
Besides transportation, improved telecommunications will also accelerate the mass media in Laos. Since 1990 postal and telecommunications services have improved. An advanced and modern telephone system was installed in 1993 and is a part of the project to expand international radio, television broadcasting and the telecommunications system. It is estimated by 2010 the number of telephone lines will rise to 340,000 (five lines per 100 persons) thus encouraging Internet use, not only in Vientiane, but also in remote towns and mountainous areas. The Lao Star Satellite Project (Lao Star Co, Ltd), a joint venture between the Lao Government and the Asia Broadcasting and Communications Network Plc (ABCN), was established in 1995. The US$ 500 million project is designed to improve the country's telecommunications infrastructure and television broadcasting in the country. The Lao Star Project also expects to operate throughout the Asian Region, setting up a multimedia network and providing other forms of digital data communication (Guide to Doing Business in Laos 1998). Although construction of the ground station for the US $ 500 million project commenced in the 1990s about 14 kilometres from the centre of Vientiane, this project stalled due to the Asian economic crisis in 1997.
Change is particularly evident with regard to access of information from the outside world. Faxes are used widely throughout the country in the private and public sectors and international Direct Dialling (IDD) is available from public telephone booths across the country (Uimonen 1999). Improved telecommunications and other factors have dramatically increased the number of domestic and international calls. In 1976, international calls reached only 148,000 minutes, whereas in 2000 this figure rose to 21,038,000 (National Statistical Centre. Lao. 2000).
Education will also be an important social factor to cause the mass media to change because larger numbers of educated people and a higher literacy rate may lead to increased consumption of media products, especially the print media and the Internet. The Government is encouraging people to study and has established new educational institutions. The number of schools, including primary, secondary and high schools rose from 4,527 in 1976 to 8,033 in 1985 and to 10,696 in 2000 and the number of students increased from 584,700 in 1985 to 1,139,900 in 2000. The number of school teachers rose from 13,100 in 1976 to 23,900 in 1985 and to 39,000 in 2000. Apart from school students, the number of tertiary students increased from 500 in 1976 to 5,200 in 1985 and to 8,800 in 2000 (National Statistical Centre. Lao. 2000). In 2001-2005, upgrading the quality of education will be the Government's main focus. The authorities concerned will concentrate on improving curricula and teaching at all levels, from pre-school to university and especially implementing compulsory education for primary school children. Illiteracy eradication will be conducted with vocational training programmes.
As the result of the government policy to remedy foreign language illiteracy, English has become very popular among the public and the younger generation are being encouraged to learn other foreign languages. As they have opened up the country, the Government also encourages Lao officials to study foreign languages so as to expand cooperation with their foreign counterparts.
Globalisation is a key factor in the transformation of the Lao mass media. Laos is a part of the global society in which 'the unifying forces of modern production, markets, communications and cultural and political modernization interact with many global, regional and local segmentations and differentiations' (Shaw 1994, p.32). The globalisation process has influenced nations throughout the world. International media corporations have encouraged flows of media products world-wide.
Since 1986 when Laos introduced the New Economic Mechanism (NEM) and opened the door to the outside world, media flows and cultural products from abroad have appeared increasingly. The authorities consider they can bring both advantages and disadvantages. Boungnang Vorachit, (now the Prime Minister of Laos) states: 'besides protecting the national culture, we select the best culture in the world to revitalise the Lao culture' (1998, p.4). Khamkhong Kongvongsa, a spokesman of the Ministry of Information and Culture's Mass Media Department said, 'while watching foreign television programmes, the bad comes along with the good' (Magnuson 1998, p.2). It seems to believe that the media flows and foreign cultural products will enrich culture and education in Laos. On the other hand, like many other Asian governments, there are concerns about the effects of some media flows and foreign cultural products, in particular the impact of violent and pornographic content and the capacity of foreign cultures to erode local cultural activities.
Satellite receiving dishes have been legally used in Laos. Quite recently, the Ministry of Information and Culture of the Lao PDR co-operated with a Chinese cable TV company to establish a cable TV in Laos, enabling Lao audiences to watch more foreign television programmes. Even before the coming of cable TV, people living in Vientiane were able to watch some Thai channels, as well as one Vietnamese channel and one French channel, each broadcast from stations built by the Vietnamese and French respectively. Thus today, people with access to cable TV living in the centre of Vientiane are able to watch up to 30 foreign television channels like ABC Asia Pacific, BBC, CNN, HBO, French TV5, German DW, Italian RAI, musical channels MTV, sport channel Starsport and so on.
To date, the number of people who can access the cable TV is small because the company has been in business for only few months. Nevertheless, the number of people who have applied for and are queued up for the cable TV is high, since connection cost is low (1,100,000 Kip = US$ 106.00) compared to cost of a satellite dish at around US$ 600.00) and monthly fees are only 15,000 Kip = US$1.45. Another cable TV owned by a Lao and Thai joint private company is in preparation.
In the 1990s, the Government invested in broadcasting, improving and building new radio and television stations throughout the country. According to the 2000-2005 Information and Culture Plan, the Ministry of Information and Culture (MIC) will provide local media organizations with up-to-date technology, making sure radio and television broadcasts reach most of the country. The MIC will financially support the attempts of several papers to increase number of pages and frequency of publication. For example, the number of pages of the Pasason newspaper will increase from six to eight and foreign language newspapers, the Vientiane Times and Le Renovateur will be published daily.
In the period 2000-2005, the Ministry of Information and Culture will focus on upgrading media content, improving radio and television programmes and the quality of newspapers and magazines. In order to fulfil this task, from the Government's point of view it is important to train media officials in both professional and political matters relating to policy, law and constitution (Ministry of Information and Culture. Lao. 2000b). Training media officials is not a new task. Khamtay Siphandone, the President of the Lao PDR at the Sixth Party Congress in 1996 urged media officials to be properly trained so as to improve the content of the mass media. Foreign aid has also been significant in training Lao media professionals. Many Lao media officials have been sent abroad to learn how to manage media in different societies. The issue of production quality looms large, in particular as the Lao people are exposed to more and more foreign media products
One Lao media industry that has particularly suffered a decline in the context of foreign competition is the film industry, even though Lao cinema was beginning to gain international recognition in the 1990s. For example, Som Ock Southiponh's 1993 documentary Lenetene's Spinning Tops won a production grant of 40,000 French Francs in a contest held by Francophone, the international society of French-speaking nations, and the feature film Bua Deng (Red Lotus) gained a special jury prize at the first Southeast Asian Film Festival in Cambodia in 1997 (Gerow, 1999). This film had been produced in 1987 and the industry had been in decline since the 1980s. Laos has not produced a single feature since 1989.
The mass media remains an important tool to motivate the public, helping the country move from a subsistence economy to a market economy, and helping to attract foreign cooperation and investment. Information, training, and motivating people remain the main strategic task. The Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee promulgated Decree No 36 in 1993 on Increasing Party Leadership and State Management in the Mass Media, in the New Period (Politburo. Lao. 1993). It lays down the main guidelines for the mass media in the period of reform. It claims that the mass media is a sharp tool of the Party and Government, being the tribune for people's expression and the mediating centre between the masses and the Party, and urges leading officials to take on the responsibility to guide and assist the mass media to fulfil its duty correctly and successfully.
Several leading Party and Government officials confirm the main duty of the mass media during the reform policy; for example, Nouhak Phoumsavanh, the former President of the Lao PDR and Advisor to the Lao People's Revolutionary Party states: 'the Party and State have always realised and attached importance to the propagation of information as a sharp means of the Party, an instrument in the struggle for lobbying, presenting the political line and policies and defending the Party line. The mass media at all times are involved in the Party strategy and tactics' (KPL News Bulletin 6 May. 1999, p.1). Khamtay Siphandone, the President of the Lao PDR also confirmed that information and mass media are important vehicles to inform both the domestic and external public about the policies of the Party and Government (1996, p.26).
The Lao Journalists' Association also took steps in urging journalists to serve the country and people, being Party and Government announcers, disseminating policies and motivating the people to implement two strategic tasks: development and the country's security and protection (Lao Mass Media 1997, vol 1, no 1, p. 4).