Party praises Laos’ progress in difficult times

Laos has been able to maintain economic growth and social and cultural development over the past five years, despite the risks posed by changing global circumstances.
This was the assessment made by the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party in its draft political report presented by Secretary General Bounnhang Vorachit at the Party’s Eleventh Congress, which began yesterday and continues today.
Concerning the global situation over the past five years, the Party was of the view that deepening disputes between major powers and the Covid-19 pandemic had escalated global tensions and complications. This created risks for economies, governments, national security, and people’s health in numerous countries.
The Party said that economic, financial and budget difficulties, problems relating to public debt, weather extremes, and the pandemic had presented enormous obstacles in achieving development targets set by the Tenth Congress.
However, under its principled comprehensive renovation policy, the Party had been able to take the lead in building important foundations and essential factors to address these difficulties, including the creation of various possibilities for steady socio-economic growth.
“We were able to prevent a possible severe economic and financial crisis, and ongoing large-scale development projects have been able to continue. These have enabled development and contributed to an average annual economic growth rate of 5.8 percent, while annual average per capita income reached US$2,664 over the past five years,” Mr Bounnhang reported.
The report also highlighted achievements in social and cultural development such as the human resource development index, poverty reduction, governance, and the Party’s Front and mass people activities.
With regard to international relations, the Party had continued its unchanged foreign policy and employed tactics to match every situation, helping to address disputes, and maintaining peace and cooperation in the region and globally.
The Party noted the friendship and cooperative ties with strategic friendly countries, which it said had grown to new heights.
Of particular importance was the great friendship, special solidarity, and comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam, which continued to deepen. Traditional relations with China and the strategic partnership had been upgraded to a partnership of common destiny, and the tradition of cooperative ties and mutual assistance with socialist countries had expanded, including multi-sectoral cooperative ties with Russia.
Along with its successes in implementing the resolution of the previous Congress, the Party recognised that there were some deficiencies in its leadership and that these needed to be tackled more strongly.
The building of a grassroots force for national defence and security, which needed to be broadened and deepened, had suffered from undesirable conduct such as drug abuse, human trafficking, road accidents, and the management of social media. In addressing these deficiencies, the Party Central Committee will enhance its capacity to study problems and come up with creative solutions to address these issues.
Inefficient management, including government officials having overlapping responsibilities, and weak law enforcement also needed to be addressed.
In addition, inadequate transparency in management, and poorly managed production platforms, will also be addressed by the Party leadership in the future.

By Times Reporters
(Latest Update January 14, 2021)