Lao PDR lies in the centre of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), an area which has received substantial investment from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other institutions with the aim of further integrating the GMS member states’ economies. Economic corridors (i.e. regional transport infrastructure) are a key element of the ADB's strategy and Lao PDR is traversed by three of these: the Northern Economic Corridor (NEC, linking Northern Thailand with Southwest China via Northwest Laos), the North-East Economic Corridor (linking Northern Thailand with Northeast Vietnam via Vientiane and Northeast Laos), and the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC, linking Eastern Burma with the port of Danang in Central Vietnam via Northeast Thailand and Savannakhet Province, Southern-Central Laos). In the eyes of the ADB and the Lao government, the planned road grid in the GMS will place Lao PDR at the centre of the Subregion's transport network and thus transport the country out of her geographic and economic isolation, one of the chief causes (in the view of political and economic decision-makers) of its structural vulnerability.

This chapter focuses on a border area straddling the districts of Sepon and Hướng Hoá between southern Laos (Savannakhet Province) and central Vietnam (Quảng Trị Province) (see Map 16.1). Hướng Hoá-Sepon area is traversed by Road No. 9, which forms the backbone of the East-West Economic Corridor. This border area includes two border towns: Lao Bảo on the Vietnamese side and Densavanh, its twin town on the Lao side. The populations living in this area comprise the Bru, an upland population, who belong to the Austro-Asiatic ethno-linguistic family; the Phutai, a Tai-speaking population, who mainly live in the lowlands of Sepon district; and the Kinh, the dominant ethnic group in Vietnam, who reside in both the uplands and the lowlands of Hướng Hoá district.

Roads in developing countries have generated contrasting comments. Governments and international aid agencies generally stress the beneficial impacts of new or upgraded roads on local economies and communities. On the other hand, these positive effects are being frequently downplayed, if not downright refuted, by NGOs and academics (Colombijn 2002, pp. 595–98).