Legal Framework for the Promotion and Protection of Foreign Investment: A Case Study of Banana Plantation Issue in Laos

Abstract

Promotion and protection of both domestic and foreign investment in Laos is necessary for the management, and protection of investment system to ensure peace, security and stability in politics and security as well as to build confidence for investors to make them invest in Laos more and more and to promote domestic labor skills and create jobs for the people in the country. In addition, it also helps to develop the socio-economic system gradually according to the country's sustainable development plan strategy 2020–2030. This article analyzes the legal framework for the promotion and protection of foreign investment, and focuses on banana plantation investment issue in Laos, based on the academic literature, and the scholarly debate around global land grabbing is advancing theoretically, methodologically, and empirically. This article has the main aim to study the implementation and enforcement of key terms and conditions of Lao national investment legislation and how these regulations can be applied to different types of foreign investment promotion and protection. In addition to the national regulatory frameworks, and how the implementation of the international investment conventions framework that Laos has ratified, and how the Lao government implements and enforces them with domestic laws and regulations in relation to the actors, scales, and processes involved, the banana acquisitions differ from state-granted large-scale land acquisitions dominating the literature on land grabbing in Laos.  Nevertheless, findings reveal how investors established networks of local middlemen who facilitate negotiations over land directly at the village level, thus enabling them to circumvent any formal involvement of government authorities. Finally, how does the Lao government have an investment dispute settlement mechanism for foreign investment, especially banana plantation dispute?

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment, Domestic Laws, Conventions, Banana Plantation in Laos.

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/135-02

Publication date:August 31^st 2023