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Laos: Legislators call for greater state investment in critical sectors

Members of the National Assembly (NA) have called the government to increase state investment into critical sectors, catalyse improvements in the ease of doing business and pursue an increasingly transparent approach to public governance.
Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith and members of the nation’s central cabinet have been in attendance at the NA’s ongoing fourth ordinary session that kicked off on Monday and will run weekdays until November 17.
At the NA’s ongoing fourth ordinary session, several members asked the government to allocate more funds for poverty alleviation and rural development.
President of the NA, Ms Pany Yathotou asked the members to help the government prioritise investment, saying that 4,600 billion kip of state investment available in 2018 was limited compared to the needs of the nation.
The call comes as Minister of Planning and Investment Dr Souphanh Keomixay proposed that 40 percent of state expenditure for 2018 should be disbursed to creditors to reduce the nation’s high levels of public debt.
Multiple NA members said rural and remote communities in their constituencies remained in critical need of infrastructure development, notably improved roads to improve access to essential services for those communities facing hardship.
“Many villages are not yet accessible by road,” an NA member for Phongsaly province, Dr Chansy Sengsomphou, told the session.
Some NA members noted that some state investment projects had been delayed and investment costs for some projects were unreasonably high while the quality remained poor, asking for the government to look into these issues.
Legislators noted that many communities have insufficient dispensaries, medical staff and school facilities with teachers too often forced to make students of different ages share the same classroom.
An NA member for Savannakhet province Prof Dr Eksavang Vongvichit asked the government to allocate investment in the education and health sectors in line with the NA’s resolutions in comments on the government’s report that suggested that investment in these sectors fell short of the approved targets due to budget constraints.
An NA member for Luang Namtha province, Mr Xayphone Khounsiliheuang noted that the development gap between cities and some rural communities had widened.
He underlined the need to increase state investment in rural development and poverty reduction, saying that the 5.96 percent of total state expenditure that was allocated for the task in previous years had been too limited.
Mr Xayphone also called for state leaders to take serious action to enforce laws and discipline on Party cadres and civil servants as necessary, saying too many had violated laws or lacked sufficient responsibility, negatively affecting the quality of public administration.
“If we do not take serious action, such issues will persist,” he said.
Mr Xayphone noted that the quality of educational and human resources trained by many of the nation’s institutes were not up to the required standard.
He noted that final exams in many schools, as well as entrance exams for universities, colleges and other educational institutes, were not carried out transparently.
Worse, scrutiny of new civil servants by many state departments was also neither competency-based nor transparent, he added.
“In doing so, we will end up with incompetent personnel,” he said, calling for action to address the issue.
An NA member for Xayaboury province, Colonel Khamsouk Vi-Inthavong, asked the government to simplify and streamline procedures to accelerate approval times for investment proposals.
He underlined the need to hasten the issuance of tourist visas including visa on arrival to better impress and attract additional foreign tourists to the country as the nation prepares for the launch of Visit Lao Year 2018.

“A slow process hinders this development,” he said.

Source: http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/FreeContent/FreeConten_Legislators_243.html