VIENTIANE (Reuters) - Isolated for decades behind Asia's bamboo curtain, communist Laos will soon take a great leap into the global capitalist marketplace with the launch of a stock exchange to fuel a quiet mining and hydro-power boom.

Government officials in one of the world's few remaining communist countries say economic liberalization will not affect the regime's hold on power in a country with ambitions to emulate China's market-based authoritarianism.

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