Concessions and Leases in the Lao PDR

2.1.7 - Trends in Approvals over Time
Out of all projects within the inventory, the data collection
team was able to obtain some type of project documentation
with information on dates of approval, including contracts,
written legal agreements and MOUs, for 1,100 projects. Since
the year 2000, but especially since 2005, there has been a
very steep increase in land deals (see Figure 4). The number
of projects granted increased by a factor of 50 in less than
ten years. The slight decrease in approved projects between
2007 and 2008 may be related to the national concession
moratorium announced by the prime minister in May 2007.
The decrease in 2009 is probably not related to an actual
decrease in overall approvals, but rather to the fact that the
data collection for this project began in 2009, and thus
an incomplete sample for 2009 and 2010 may have been
gathered. The inventory data presented here mirrors investment
trends as presented in Policy Brief 01/2010 developed
by the Poverty-Environment Initiative (with the UNDP, UNEP
and MPI). The document states that, “in 2009 alone, 208
projects were approved and implemented, valued at
approximately USD 4.3 billion of FDI” (PEI, 2010).
Figure 4: Increase in Investment Projects since 2000
1,200
1,000
# Deals
800
600
400
200
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Year
Approved Project Count per Year
Cumulative Approved Project Count
2.1.8 - Implementation Status
Of all projects included in the inventory, 2,027 (77%) were
operational as of the end of 2010. Those projects cover
717,896 ha, or 65% of all land under investment. This does not
mean that all those projects were fully implemented at that
time, but rather that they had initiated activities in one way
or another. It is still notable that more than three quarters of
investors had launched activities at the time of data collection,
as this contradicts concerns and findings in many other
parts of the world that land deals are often purely speculative
in nature (Anseeuw et al., 2012). Still, cases of investors
exploiting granted land solely for clear-cut logging instead of
carrying out proposed investment activities, as confirmed by
the inventory team, are abundant throughout the Lao PDR.
Another 3% of all projects were in their initial phase of surveying
or performing feasibility studies. 15% of all projects approved
(meaning they had already reached an agreement with the
appropriate parties regarding the area for investment and had
signed a contract or MOU) were not operational at the time of
surveying. Though representing 15% of all deals, these nonoperational
projects covered a significant 338,226 ha of land,
or 31% of the total area under investment. All other projects
have either been cancelled or have finished operations.
2.2 - Investment in the Primary Sector
Investment in the primary sector far exceeds investment in
any other sectors, making mining, forestry and agriculture
significant across most other characteristics of investment.
Mining is the largest subsector in terms of both area and
number of projects (21% of all projects, 50% of total area),
with forestry and agriculture less but still significantly sizeable
(see Table 2 and Figure 5).
The distribution of different types of investors across the
agriculture, mining and forestry subsectors strays only slightly
from overall trends (see Figure 6). While joint ventures have
projects spread evenly across all three subsectors, domestic
investors hold a large number of small mining projects (413
out of a total 686 domestic primary sector deals), and foreign
investors are involved slightly more in forestry than in the other
RESULTS
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