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. 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.