Lao officials assert that their national development has continuously improved the standard of living for the Hmong ethnic minority people, and that the improvement is the result particularly of the poverty reduction programs that have been implemented under the opium poppy, and slash and burn farming elimination projects.
A leader of the Hmong community in Ban Nalao, KM 52, outside of Vientiane, confirmed to VOA that his people's living conditions have greatly improved since quitting the slash and burn farming and opium poppy cultivation and moving down from the mountain under the government's relocation program in 2000.
Listen to our Laos today for more details.