Who is Bouasone Bouphavanh?

Answer 1

Bouasone Bouphavanh (born June 3, 1954 in Ban Tao Poun, Muang Salavan, Salavan Province) is the prime minister of Laos. 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 was educated at a primary school and secondary school in Salavanh Province and Champasak Province from 1961-1974 and at the Communist Party Institute in Moscow, former Soviet Union, from 1986-1990. Trained in the Soviet Union and appointed prime minister at the age of 52, Bouasone is part of a new generation of leaders in the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, harbingering a possible shift in Laos' traditional firm reliance on its ties to Vietnam, to increased reliance and cooperation with China[1]. He ranks seventh in the Politburo. 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 protege of former party leader Khamtai Siphandon.