Overview of the Policies for Attracting Foreign Direct Investment Inflows into Lao PDR

This paper examines foreign investment policies for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to Lao People Democratic Republic (Lao PDR). The first regulatory in Lao PDR aimed at shifting the country’s foreign economic relation was the enactment of the foreign investment laws. The policies and regulations have been revise recently to create a more favorable investment climate. The government has provided a wide range of tax rationality especially of tax and non-tax incentives for corporation projects within the Specific Economic Zones (SEZs), reduction on import taxes and tax on foreign corporate profit that is lower than for domestic enterprises. FDI laws are relatively liberal, allowing 100 percent foreign ownership across a wide range of sectors. At present, the Lao government is working towards improving the trade and investment laws to encourage FDI and trade in the country. Laos is exploring the laws of a variety of market-oriented countries around the world. Keywords: Foreign direct investment, Policies, Regulation, Special Economic Zones, Government of Lao PD

Perception of Official Corruption, Satisfaction With Government Performance, and Subjective Wellbeing—An Empirical Study From China

Both corruption and subjective wellbeing are of concern to academics and governments. Although some evidence suggests that corruption deteriorates subjective wellbeing, the relationship between perception of official corruption and subjective wellbeing is still unknown. This study aims to examine the link between perceived official corruption and subjective wellbeing in the context of China and whether satisfaction with government performance has a mediating effect in the process. Based on data from China General Social Survey, a structural equation model was used to test the hypotheses. The results of 3,033 Chinese respondents suggest that perception of official corruption is negatively related to subjective wellbeing, and satisfaction with government performance plays a mediating role in the relationship between perception of official corruption and subjective wellbeing

Impact of land use on bicycle usage: A big data-based spatial approach to inform transport planning

Bicycling is an alternative of urban transport mode, which is significantly influenced by land use. This paper makes an effort to quantify the magnitude and direction of the impact. We first develop a theoretical framework to establish links between land use and bicycle usage. Then, trip data is crawled from Mobike, one of the largest newly emerging, free-floating bike sharing operators in Shenzhen (China), for a total of more than 7.8 million records over 191 consecutive days. And bicycling frequency, travel duration, and riding distance are obtained to be proxies of bicycle usage. Land-use characteristics regarding bicycling are comprehensively indicated by a set of standardized variables including three dimensions, land-use type, land-use mix, land-use connections, and 12 concrete indices. Panel spatial model is applied to quantify the associations at the district level with socioeconomics controlled. Results show that the percentage of green land has a remarkable impact on bicycle usage outcomes and land-use mix is positively associated with bicycling frequency. Density of intersections contributes to longer trip duration. Bicycle lane is a positive facilitator on workdays, while the number of stations is positively related to bicycle usage, especially frequency and distance. These findings provide insight into land use-transport interaction and could be of value to policymakers, planers and practitioners for transport planning while incorporating bicycling-friendly principles