Laos fears economic effect from oil prices

VIENTIANE: -- Land-locked Laos, which has no known petroleum resources, faces a serious threat from rising oil prices this year, the country's president warned Monday.

"Rising oil prices on the world market will have a serious impact here," said Lao President Choummali Saignason in his opening remarks to the mid-year session of the National Assembly, according to Lao radio reports.

Laos, one of Asia's poorest economies, is rich in water resources but has no known petroleum reserves. Oil and fuel face high transport costs as they must be imported by land through Thailand or Vietnam, Laos' neighbours to the south and east.

The National Assembly, communist Laos' legislative body, opened its mid-year session on Monday in Vientiane.

The assembly will review the government's six month performance and discuss two new laws on livestock and handicrafts, said Radio Vientiane in a broadcast monitored in Bangkok.

The assembly has opened a telephone hot line, 2246, for citizens to voice their complaints and recommendations to the government during the session.

Laos has been a one-party communist regime since 1975. The country, half the size of France with a population of less than 6 million, ranks as one of the poorest nations in Southeast Asia.

--dpa 2008-07-07

No real surprise here - I've see the price of diesel in the past 2 year nigh on double. I remember buying a 6790kip per litre in 2006 - now it's 11880kip per litre.

I worked it out last time I fueled pickup - I usual put in 300,000kip:

2006: 44.18litre - nearly full tank

2008: 25.25litre - half a tank

Pretty staggering really!

It'll no doubt hit the imports and exports hard since everything has got to go either by land or air. No rail systems and obviously no sea ports - not a good situation for a landlocked country which has no oil resources of it own.