Intergro's weekly business letter for
people who never stop upgrading! It's
where important business, financial
and economic events, matters and
thoughts are gathered and presented
in a time-saving fashion.

  • Dr. Mana Southichack, Intergro's Director, Economist
    and Business Advisor, co-authored a paper with Dr.
    Manoj Potapohn, Professor of Economics and
    Assistant Dean for Research, Chiang Mai University,
    land concessions in northern and southern villages of
    Lao PDR"; presented at the IASC 2011, Hyderabad,
    India, 10-14 January 2011.


  • At the Third International Conference on Lao Studies,
    Dr. Mana Southichack, Intergro's Director, Economist
    and Business Advisor, presented a paper titled
    "Economic Convergence inside Laos?" The
    conference will be held at the Khon Kaen University,
    Khon Kaen, Thailand, 14-16 July 2010.

Intergro's Recent Research:

  • Microfinance in the Lao Coffee Industry: Lessons
    for a Sector Approach? by Dr. Mana Southichack,
    Intergro's Director. Project examines the financial
    services by financial institutions, coffee
    trade/processing companies and private individual
    lenders to the roughly 20,000 smallholders in the
    coffee industry in the Boleven Plateau of Southern
    Laos (working).
Updated: 16 Jun. 2012
International Conferences:
Intergro's research is all about making complexity
simple, accurately, and practically doable.
U.S. and China, Both in Trouble
And each needs the other

... While the US is struggling to get out of a recession that began in 2008, China is growing at a
phenomenal rate. However, China is also in economic trouble: How to lead the economy towards a self-
sustaining one in order to avoid a “middle income trap” that would prevent China from ever reaching the
developed stage of economy (at least up to the state of economy known today as developed economy).
China can help the US getting out of a recession, and by helping the US, China would avoid the “middle
income trap.” How?

Read the entire article, brief updates and more.
Laos a place to grow money?
The small, landlocked Lao economy, … , is one of the most corrupted and difficult places to do
business on earth. Despite these negative facts, why has Laos continued to increasingly attract
more foreign investments in recent years?
Regardless of the country’s very low rank in EDBI
and Corruption Perception Index, investment in
Laos has many advantages, with substantial
long-term growth potentials. For the country, it will
do much better in attracting quality foreign
investment and in achieving economic
development goals, … , if it can substantially
reduce corruption and improve its “Ease of Doing
Business” ranking by rapidly and progressively
eliminating unnecessary bureaucratic barriers to
business operations and trade. Read the entire
article and brief updates.
New Corporate Income Tax Makes Laos Less
Competitive and Less Sustainable

Laos’ 28% corporate income tax rate hurts the country’s competitiveness and could induce
more concentration of future foreign investment in natural resource-based activities and
less in processing, manufacturing and knowledge-based sectors, leading towards a less
sustainable path.

Find out why, read the article (in PDF, 500 KB).

Keep updating,
Keep upgrading,
Keep broadening the horizon,
Keep moving ahead,

with  Lao Intergro
Laos to Benefit More from Lower Tax

This article argues that a smarter corporate income tax policy for Laos is one that
implements a permanently low tax rate, particularly for the non-resource-based sectors.
Instituting a substantially lower corporate income tax rate than what is currently in place will
attract more foreign investments in sectors crucial for growth in the diversified,
non-natural-resource-based SMEs that supply products and services to large businesses
and consumers, generating many skilled and long term jobs and incomes across sectors.
This will more likely lead towards a more balanced and sustainable growth path. Why, how,
and will lower tax lead to government revenue loss?

Find out why, download the article (in PDF, 476 KB).