Thailand
Laos: Land issues, SME promotion dominate Party meeting
The leadership of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party has told the government to continue to prioritise the addressing of land issues along with greater promotion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to boost the economy.
The Party leadership gave the advice at the fourth Plenary Session of the Party Central Committee that ended on Friday. The five-day session was presided over by Party Secretary General and President Bounnhang Vorachit.
The session noted the shortcomings concerning land management and development, and adopted measures to address the issues, but details were not given.
The Party’s advice came after several land issues reportedly emerged, prompting the government to take action.
In its monthly meeting for January, the government entrusted a newly-formed taskforce committee to take action to address emerging land issues including the illegal occupation of land such as forest preservation areas and the illegal sale of state land by government officials.
The committee will inspect land concessions, the transfer of land use rights in various cases, implementation of the government’s policy to turn assets into capital, and the occupation of land by local people among other matters, following disputes and p roblems in this area.
The taskforce committee will carry out a detailed analysis of emerging land issues and report their findings to the government by October.
The findings will be later reported to the Party’s Politburo and the National Assembly to seek guidance and resolution.
Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith said recently that a number of fake documents had been produced authorising the right to use state land, which was now decreasing due to this problem.
Last week’s session also discussed and approved a policy to boost SMEs after learning that more work needed to be done to support their operations.
Party Secretary General Bounnhang told the government to pay special attention to the proper management and development of land, while promoting SMEs in order to boost the economy.
The session also reviewed the implementation of the resolution of the third plenary session of the Party Central Committee and the government’s performance over the past six months and discussed future work pla ns.
Last week’s session adopted directions for socio-economic development. Th e session concluded that Laos has enjoyed political stability and social order conducive to socio-economic development, with national development progressing on track in line with the resolution of the 10th Party Congress.
As a result, the Lao multiethnic people are confident in the Party’s leadership and have participated in the imple mentation of the resolution of the 10th Party Congress, while international friends continue to extend support and assistance to Laos.
Source: http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/FreeContent/FreeConten_Land.htm