CFCO International
Washington, D.C. 20006
April 21, 2003
The Hon Phil Crane
Chairman
US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Trade
Washington DC 20515
Dear Congressman Crane:
Congressional authorization of Normal Trade Relations for Laos is doing the right thing, because it is the right thing to do!
The official US conflict in Indo-China is long over, as is the American Secret War in Laos.
Vietnam, China, Burma and Cambodia, each have secured NTR agreements with the United States; while for many years Laos has been systematically used as a political football by a few US Representatives and Senators, and right wing factions in our country.
In brief, the American legacy in Laos is shameful and indefensible. Its recurring negative impact on some of the world’s most impoverished people is still relatively unknown, e.g. thousands of children and adults have been killed or maimed through UXO contact in over 40% of the landmass of Laos; Agent Orange and other killer herbicides/pesticides have contaminated huge areas of the country; until September 11, 2001, there were systematic terrorist activities, encouraged by Lao-American extremists, directed at destabilizing civil society and replacing the sovereign Lao PDR government.
Your Congressional colleagues and you have a real opportunity to help right an American geopolitical wrong, through prompt legislative action on the amendment of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) to strike Laos from General Note 3(B) and grant NTR status to this ASEAN nation.
In doing so, you will be striking a blow for freedom for 5.5 million Laotians whose lives will be enriched through a strengthening of the US-Lao bilateral relationship and promotion of a US foreign policy of constructive engagement that builds bridges, not walls, and encourages long term democratic, humanitarian and economic reforms.
President Bush, Secretary Powell, Ambassador Zoellick and the Administration are on record as supporting NTR, and also World Trade Organization membership, for Laos. It will send a powerful positive signal to Americans, and the international community, to have decisive Congressional action on the granting of NTR status for Lao PDR.
CFCO is the American representative for the Nam Theun 2 Electricity Consortium that is developing the $1.1 billion NT2 hydroelectric project in Laos. The US partner on this international private public partnership project is MWH Global Inc., whose Chicago subsidiary is Harza Engineering. The US contract and fees component of NT2 is approximately $250 million and has job ramifications for the company’s operations in Illinois. The project is contingent upon a World Bank partial risk guarantee and financing and will have a major impact on poverty alleviation, environmental/social safeguards, civil society, fiscal transparency and long term democratic reforms in Laos. For further information, please access the NT2 website at www.namtheun2.com
CFCO has a good working relationship with the Lao PDR and Thai Ambassadors to the US, Ambassador Doug Hartwick, US Ambassador to Laos, Bush Administration, Congressional, NGO, public policy and Laotian American sources supportive of NTR for Laos. We have helped mobilize a private, public and voluntary sector lobby to encourage Congressional passage of NTR for Laos and many of our contacts have submitted written statements for the record.
Attached is a May 23, 2002 speech given in the US House of Representatives on, “The relationship of sustainable economic development to poverty alleviation, social/civil reforms, reconciliation and environmental protection, in Laos” at a National Laotian-American Symposium on United States-Laos relations. It underscores the importance of the potential that NTR has to positively impact the lives of many Laotians, encourage free enterprise and expanded two way trade between the US and Lao PDR.
Thank you for your leadership on this important legislative action.
With every good wish for continued success.
Sincerely,
Tony R. Culley-Foster
President
____________________
Tony R. Culley-Foster, BA, ACP, TD, MA
President, CFCO International
Washington, DC
International business consultant and lobbyist on behalf of European-American multinational companies with investment, trade, manufacturing, or service industry interests in the United States.
Involved with EU-US senior executives in business management, government relations and corporate communications strategic matters related to international commercial priorities in North America.
Management advice and support services on business development, regulatory, legislative, lobby, contract bid, sales, economic development, public relations and communications priorities in national, State and municipal markets.
Development and implementation of EU-US strategic and tactical business plans, involving representatives of the White House, Cabinet agencies, Congress of the United States, States, municipalities, World Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, trade associations, European-American corporations and US media.
Utilization of extensive business, government and voluntary sector contacts throughout Europe and North America to advance joint venture, strategic alliances, technology transfer, economic development, trade and investment priorities.
Former Founding Director and Chief Executive of the Congressional Award, Washington DC; the American counterpart of the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Reported to the leadership of the Congress of the United States and a 33 person Board of Directors composed of distinguished American corporate, labor, government, education and civic leaders.
Former Personal Assistant to W. Clement Stone, Chairman and Founder of Combined Insurance Company of America (now AON Corporation, a $10 Billion Chicago-based, multinational financial services company).
Founding Chairman, Northern Ireland Partnership - USA and the Northern Ireland - United States Chamber of Commerce Inc. Involved with US-EU private, public and voluntary sector leaders on peace, economic development, trade, investment, education and cultural projects involving Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Professional profiles in Who's Who in: The World; America; Leaders in Finance & Industry; and Emerging Leaders in the United States.
Numerous commendations from government, business and civic leaders in the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom for voluntary service, private sector initiatives and corporate social responsibility leadership.
Born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.
Educated in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States.
____________________
NATIONAL LAOTIAN-AMERICAN SYMPOSIUM
on
UNITED STATES – LAOS RELATIONS
Panel presentation on
“The relationship of sustainable economic development to poverty alleviation,
social/civil reforms, reconciliation and environmental protection, in Laos.”
The Gold Room, Rayburn House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Thursday May 23, 2002
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Comments by:
Tony R. Culley-Foster
President, CFCO International &
Nam Theun 2 Electricity Consortium
US Representative
Thanks for the opportunity to share some perspectives on the relationship of sustainable economic development to poverty alleviation, social/civil reforms, reconciliation and environmental protection in Laos.
During the past 13 months, CFCO International has been privileged to be the United States representative for the Nam Theun 2 Electricity Consortium (NT2).
The proposed $1.1 billion infrastructure investment in Laos is being developed by a French-American-Thai-Laotian international private public partnership, whose goal is to build, own, operate and transfer (to Government of Lao ownership) an international best practice hydroelectric dam (see NT2 power project attachment). The project has the support of the President of Lao PDR, the Prime Minister of Thailand and the President of France.
Sustainable Economic Development
Laos is one of the world’s poorest developing nations and the only member of ASEAN that does not have Normal Trade Relations with the United States. As a landlinked nation, it has focused on strengthening its bilateral relationships with Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, China, and others in the international community; plus development of its two principal natural resources, timber and hydropower. Controlled exploitation of these commercial resources is the only viable economic development alternative for Lao PDR and a means to earn much-needed foreign currency. The GOL has wisely chosen sustainable long-term hydroelectric export production, over massive unsustainable logging of some of the most pristine and biodiversity-rich rainforest in SE Asia.
Poverty Alleviation
During 2001, the GOL, IMF and World Bank developed a comprehensive Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility program that was originally linked to NT2. It was deemed so important to the nation, and its overall development program, that the PRGF will be implemented regardless of the NT2 outcome. However, in conjunction with NT2, the poverty fund impact will be much more significant, pervasive and long-term for the people of Laos.
Unless Laos has a stronger, self-sustaining economy, it will be unable to fund, support or maintain long-term poverty alleviation and improved social/civil society reform programs. The substantial hydroelectric export revenues that will result from NT2, over the next 30 years, constitute a sizeable percentage of Lao’s GDP and will be efficiently managed; due to the stringent provision of the GOL Financial Management conditionality. The enforcement mechanism ensures that funds can ONLY be allocated to specific sustainable development priorities.
Social/Civil Reforms
A 25/30 year project of the magnitude of NT2 is recognized by the Lao PDR, international community, and multilateral agencies, as providing economic growth and national stability that will be the foundation for long-term social and civil reforms in Lao PDR. NT2 can be the financial catalyst for a progressive reform movement as the project development process and GOL negotiations with the World Bank, IMF and NTEC have resulted in increased fiscal conditionality, governmental oversight and societal transparency provisions.
Reconciliation
Laos has 67 ethnic groups represented in its national population of 5.2 million, of whom 500,000, or approximately 10%, are Hmong.
The Cold War and Indo-China conflict are long over. Lao PDR is a sovereign nation with full recognition and representation in ASEAN and the United Nations. Vietnam, Cambodia and China have reconciled past differences with the US; Laos needs the politics of inclusion, not exclusion; foreign policy bridges not walls, and dams not damnation, to assist its transition to a more representative democratic nation.
Since September 11, that ethos has become even more compelling, with the movement toward stronger bilateral relations between the United States and its allies in the international war on terrorism. Laos is one of those allies and since September 13 has had a new American Ambassador to facilitate ‘bridge building’ between the two countries. Reconciliation between the leaders of the American-Hmong community and the Lao PDR government will be facilitated by economic stability, related social/civil reforms, poverty alleviation and environmental protection from sustainable development projects like NT2. It will happen when each of the groups takes ‘real risks for reconciliation’ and there is a stronger US-Lao PDR bilateral relationship.
Environmental Protection
NT2 meets or exceeds the social safeguards and environmental protection standards advocated by the World Commission on Dams. It has established an international best practice benchmark of excellence for a hydroelectric project, that other development groups will attempt to emulate, globally. The net social and environmental offsets of NT2 substantially outweigh the inevitable impact of siting a major dam anywhere in the world.
(Please note the attached March 2002 “Interim Report of the International Environmental and Social Panel of Experts” for further details on the NT2 social and environmental priorities).
Summary
In April 2002, the Inaugural Session of the Vth Legislature of the Lao PDR National Assembly noted in Resolution #6 that:
“The session deliberated and endorsed the Theun II Hydropower Project Plan proposed by the Government. The session concluded the shared view that the project plan is the Government’s priority program and is of high socio-economic efficiency meeting the national strategic plan to poverty reduction of pluri-ethnic people, providing solid foundation in turning the country to industrialization and modernization, responding to actual needs of people inhabited in the project area.”
During this past year, I have had the privilege of meeting Lao PDR leadership representatives and many Laotians in Laos and the United States. I have also spent time in Vientiane and on the Nakai Plateau, especially with the people whose lives and land would be most impacted by the development of NT2. It has been a profoundly moving experience and has deepened my desire to increase international private, public and voluntary (NGO) support for NT2 as a sustainable economic development project to benefit all the people of Laos and strengthen the US-Laos bilateral relationship.
I appreciate the opportunity to be part of this inaugural Symposium and will be pleased to answer any questions on the Nam Theun 2 Electricity Consortium advocacy for establishment of the NT2 hydroelectric dam in Laos.