Asia and the Pacific Education for All (EFA) mid-decade assessment ...

subsistence production, a small sector of the local population benefited from the export earnings
from rice, rubber, and tin. Colonialism also introduced other social and political changes, including
a secular education system. Though never directly colonized, Thailand also under went these socioeconomic
and political trans for ma tions.
National independence in the Mekong Sub-Region came after the Second World War (WW II) and
was quickly followed by several decades of armed conflict during the Cold War. The countries which
suffered the impacts of the conflict most acutely were Viet Nam, Lao PDR, and Cambodia. Although
Myanmar was not drawn into the major international conflicts in the region, it nonetheless endured
chronic internal struggles between the government and autonomy-seeking ethnic groups. As a
free market, pro-American ally, Thailand was the only country in the region to escape the most
devastating impacts of the conflicts during the Cold War era.
By the mid-1970s, with the exception of Thailand, all countries in the Sub-Region were either
communist or socialist states. While these political regimes varied significantly in their interpretation
of socialist ideologies, they shared several common features, including the collectivization of
agriculture and nationalization of industries. The Democratic Republic of Kampuchea was the most
extreme case, as the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot sought to com pletely restructure Cambodian
society by abolishing social hierarchy and religion, collectiviz ing agriculture, abandoning much of
the industrial base, and abandoning currency and the banking system. It is estimated that between
1975 and 1979 during the Khmer Rouge regime some 50,000-100,000 persons were executed and
1.2 million died from starvation, illness, hard labour, and other related causes.
Post-Conflict Development. As conflict in the Sub-Region subsided in the late 1980s and early
1990s, several states began the transition from highly centralized command economies to open
market economies. In 1986, Viet Nam introduced the Doi Moi (renovation) reforms, and Lao PDR
introduced the New Economic Mechanism. In Cambodia, the shift took place after the 1991 Paris
Agreements and UN-sponsored elections in 1993. All countries in the region eventually became
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
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A further initiative, with the assistance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), was the establishment
of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region (GMS) to enhance the Sub-Region’s economic integration
by supporting projects in a variety of sectors. By 2006, GMS countries had implemented subregional
projects worth more than USD 6.5 billion, including up grading of the East-West Corridor
connecting Lao PDR, north-eastern Thailand, and central Viet Nam, and the Kunming-Chiang Rai
road via Lao PDR. Other projects include the promotion of the Greater Mekong Sub-Region as a
tourist destination, the Cross-Border Transport Agreement, and the development of a Strategic
Environmental Framework.
Economic Development. After decades of armed conflict, the Mekong Sub-Region has shown
unprecedented economic growth in the past decade. Relative peace in the region has spurred
economic liberalisation, foreign investment, and inter-governmental cooperation in regional
infrastructure development, leading to freer sub-regional flows of goods, labour, and information.
As a result the low-income, transitional economies of Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam have been
growing at a rate of 6%-10% annually since 2001 (World Bank, 2007a), while the middle income
economy of Thailand has witnessed steady growth between 4%-5% per year, following the 1997-
1998 Asian financial crisis. Economic growth in the Sub-Region has led to rising living standards
and falling poverty rates. For example, in Lao PDR, the poverty rate dropped from 46% in 1993 to
31% in 2005, and in Viet Nam, the population living below the USD 2 a day poverty level fell from
62% in 2001 to 36% in 2006 (World Bank, 2007b).
The benefits of economic growth in the Sub-Region have been uneven and have given rise to
increasing levels of inequality, with living standards rising more slowly among rural populations
(World Bank, 2007c). Rapid economic growth in the Sub-Region has also raised concerns about
health, social and environmental impacts. Plans to develop the Mekong River as a source of