Surya and Wife

Ever since the World Wide Web was introduced to the public, it has become a must- have medium to be connected around the globe. Electronic mail or e-mail has played an important role in our new era of communication.

Surya Pravongviengkham, founder and web master of laofr.net wants to do just that - to create a web site to become the center stage for all Lao voices.

Surya, a native of Laos, came to France in 1976 with his family at age eight. His educational background is in Economic Science and Web Information. He is married and has two beautiful children.

Discussing his goal of creating his laofr.net website with VOA, Surya says… ”I wanted to create this website and wanted it to become a

Surya and his boys

center stage or a chat room for all Laotians, including Lao Nai(Laotians inside Laos) and Lao Nork(Laotians outside Laos) to be able to communicate. We need a communication medium to connect among Laotians, especially the Lao diaspora who need to learn more about themselves, their heritage, culture and traditions. I’ve contributed all my times to make it work. I spend all my free time to make it possible because I strongly believe in it. It’s very difficult for me because I work full time and I also have a family. Dispite it all, I manage to get it up and keep it going. I work alone but I don’t mind because this is a such important source of information, and in fact it’s an ideal to be connected.”

Surya

Surya says laofr.net was at first established mainly to provide community news to the Lao diaspora in France, and was later expanded to include all Laotians. The laofr.net site was established in 2000. Surya dedicated a lot of his time to this website although he works fulltime to support his family. Since he has a limited time for this website, he spent his time mainly posting news about the most important events and activities for the Laotian community, rather than focussing mainly on the look of the site.  

"I am very happy to see the result of my work at this point. More than 600 visitors click into the site. I will be happier to see more comments and suggestions, and I look forward to hearing from all of you. I am open to all. Do come in to visit or email me at laofr.net."

Listen to our audio files for more of Surya Pravongviengkham interview.