Bouasone Bouphavanh
Bouasone Bouphavanh was Prime Minister of Laos from 2006 to 2010. He was officially appointed to the office by the National Assembly of Laos on June 8, 2006, during a major government reshuffle. He replaced Bounnhang Vorachith who became vice president. Bouasone had previously served as first deputy prime minister since October 3, 2003. Before that, he was third deputy prime minister and was president of the State Planning Committee. He ranks seventh in the Politburo. He was replaced as Prime Minister on 23 December 2010 by Thongsing Thammavong. Now, Bouasone Bouphavanh currently serves as head of the Lao Party Central Committee's Commission for Economic Development Strategy Research.
He was educated at a primary school and secondary school in Salavan Province and Champasak Province from 1961 to 1974 and later at the Communist Party Institute in Moscow in the Soviet Union from 1986 to 1990.
Appointed prime minister at the age of 52, Bouasone is part of a new generation of leaders in the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, signaling a possible shift in Laos' traditional firm reliance on its ties to Vietnam to increased reliance and cooperation with China. As part of the overhaul of Laos economy Bouphavanh has announced plans to increase foreign investment in Laos and open a Laotian stock exchange.
In 1975, shortly before the fall of Vientiane to the Pathet Lao, he was a student activist who played a key role in protests against the previous regime. He is considered a protégé of former party leader Khamtai Siphandon.
