Saemaul Undong launched in Korea in 1970 has been evaluated as best practice on rural community development by UNESCAP in 2002. Especially Saemaul Undong contributed so much to alleviating rural poverty in Korea through 1970s and 1980s. Even though Saemaul Undong was initiated by highly centralized Korean government in 1970s, it evoked diligence, self-help and cooperation spirit at village level, thereby cultivating 'governance system' and accumulating 'social capital' in Korean rural society. In this line, this article aims at reviewing the pilot project of Saemaul Undong sponsored by UNESCAP in Lao PDR and Cambodia in the point of social capital and governance from 2004 to the first half of 2005. In this article social capital is defined as trust among village people to build commonality, citizen participation to establish common goals, network to maintain neighborhood, social norm or institution to mobilize community resources and to build safety net, and altruism to create common interest. In the other part, governance is approached from the point of implementing organization and implementing methodology of the pilot project of Saemaul Undong. The data was collected by field survey on the pilot project sites twice in 2005 and through workshop held in Lao PDR and Cambodia in December, 2005. In conclusion, the pilot project of Saemaul Undong in Lao PDR and Cambodia has been proved efficient and effective to accumulate social capital and to cultivate governance, even though the circumstance in both countries is somewhat different from that in Korea in 1970s and 1980s. This shows that the methodology of Saemaul Undong can be applied to other developing countries as best practice to develop rural community as it worked in Korea through 1970s and 1980s.