Choummaly Sayasone Net Worth

Background and career

Lieutenant General Choummaly Sayasone (Lao: ຈູມມະລີ ໄຊຍະສອນ; born 6 March 1936) is a retired Laotian politician and army officer who was General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP), the country's supreme leader, and President of Laos from 2006 to 2016. Born into a farming family in Attapeu Province, Sayasone joined the communist Pathet Lao forces in 1954 and the party in 1955, and he rose through the army during the Laotian Civil War to command the armed forces of Xieng Khouang Province in 1975. A protégé and close confidant of Khamtai Siphandone, he was minister of national defence from 1991 to 2001 and vice president from 2001 to 2006, before succeeding Khamtai as party leader and head of state in 2006.

As leader, Sayasone made Vietnam the destination of his first foreign visit while expanding ties with China, and in 2013, he became the first Lao head of state to visit France.His government pursued rapid economic growth, and Laos joined the World Trade Organization in 2013. He stepped down as party leader at the party's Tenth Congress in January 2016 and as president in April 2016, and he was succeeded in both posts by Bounnhang Vorachith.