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In 1986, the communist government of Laos introduced several economic reforms, which were clearly in discord with what is generally understood to be the communist ideology. I would be interested to learn how the government explained the reforms.
If possible, please quote the government officials in your answers. And just to clarify: I am aware that Laos is not the only communist coutry in which similar reforms have been introduced, but Laos is what I'm interested in at the moment.
In 1986, the government of Laos began to switch from a command-and-control economy to a market based one. They did this by deregulating control of prices, introducing profit and loss incentives to state enterprise management, allowing trade between companies and individuals to be based on a contract basis between the parties, and easing control over wages.
The government believed that decentralizing economic decision making and introducing market signals would promote growth in their economy, which had been stagnant for decades. Their predictions on this point turned out to be accurate, as their yearly economic growth averaged 6% from 1988 - 2007.
Main sources was "Laos' Dilemmas and Options: The Challenge of Economic Transition in the 1990s"
