POE is a pro-active response to transnational environmental organizations, networks, and movements. Some scholars believe that the POE composition reflects neo-colonial goals and mentalities. The large portion of the POE's budget spent sending the western members of the Panel to Laos and back from their home countries instead of relying upon local professionals shows distrust in the competency of the Laotian researchers and analysts. Similarly, Laotian civil servants are paid a tiny fraction of what their western counterparts earn for their work. Additionally, many of these local officials are relegated to translators. This aligns with the argument that the POE and the World Bank suppress local knowledge. Scholars argue that as the indigenous people become increasingly commoditized an asymmetric relationship develops between development experts and the beneficiaries who are perceived as irrational, environmentally degrading, and in dire need of development at almost any cost. The POE funding proposals involved teaching Laotian proto-professional English and sending the abroad to learn to identify endogenous species only to return to Laos to staff conservation agencies. Even when the POE or other groups discuss the project in the numerous public consultations on the dam, they use language that the villagers cannot understand. The Banks failure to communicate with the “objects” of development shows to some scholars that the project is informed by a neocolonial mindset. References Hydroelectricity in Laos Khammouane province Environmental impact assessment