Chinese goods transform life in Southeast Asia

International Herald Tribune: Chinese goods transform life in Southeast Asia

LONG LAO GAO, Laos: The pineapple that grows here on the steep hills above the Mekong River is especially sweet, the red and orange chilies unusually spicy, and the spring onions and watercress retain the freshness of the mountain dew.

For years, getting this prized produce to market meant carrying a giant basket on a back-breaking, daylong trek down narrow mountain trails that cut through the jungle.

That is now changing, thanks in large part to China.

Villagers ride their cheap Chinese motorcycles, which sell for as little as $440, down a badly rutted dirt road to the markets of Luang Prabang, the charming city of Buddhist temples along the Mekong that draws flocks of foreign tourists. The trip takes just one and half hours.

"No one had a motorcycle before," said Khamphao Janphasid, 43, a teacher in the local school whose extended family now has three of them. "The only motorcycles that used to be available were Japanese and poor people couldn't afford them."

Cheap Chinese products are flooding China's southern neighbors and consumers in Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia are laying out the welcome mat.

The products are transforming the lives of some of the poorest people in Asia, whose worldly possessions only a few years ago typically consisted of not much more than a set or two of clothes, cooking utensils and a thatch-roofed house built by hand.

The concerns in the West about the safety of Chinese toys and pet food are largely moot for the people living in the remote villages here, although some residents complain about quality. As the first introduction to global capitalism, Chinese products are met with deep appreciation.

"Life is better because prices are cheaper," Khamphao said. ...

Comments

[Brad Cooper]

Very exciting for the poor people of Laos.

Reminds me of when WalMart came to the area that we lived in almost 20 years ago. All the financially well off individuals in the community were complaining that WalMart would cause locally owned businesses to shut down--which it did.

Those business owner's had to make the difficult transition of change to a different source of income. But those of us who were having a hard time making ends meet were very glad for how WalMart impacted our weekly budget....

[Michael W. Kruse]

WalMart is controversial one. Most folks think of improved standard of living in terms of increasing income. Lower cost goods also improve standards of living. The lower you are on the economic scale you are the greater percentage of your income goes to food and basic necessities, precisely the goods WalMart focuses on. It is interesting that we rarely here the poor complaining about WalMart but middle to upper-middle class activists treat WalMart like Satan. On the whole, I think WalMart is by far a net positive. (See my post from Aug 2006 Is Wal-Mart a Good Thing?)

[Brad Cooper]

I absolutely agree, Michael. Cost-effective production and distribution of the things that people need at a reasonable quality level is a boon for poorer people. In my experience, WalMart (and others; e.g., ALDI) provide that.