The number of poor families in Laos has declined to less than 19 percent, according to the latest survey finding from the National Leading Committee for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication in July.
The survey was conducted in line with the Prime Minister's Decree No. 285, issued in 2009.
The decree stipulates that to be above poverty a family must earn an average income of 192,000 kip per head per month (180,000 kip for those in rural areas and 240,000 kip for those in urban areas).
The survey found that 199,758 of the country's total 1,053,349 families (18.96 percent) live in poverty, down from 20.4 percent in the 2009-10 fiscal year.
Vice President of the Committee Mr Savang Sihavong unveiled the new survey findings at a seminar held at the Vientiane Times office on Friday, which was attended by media personnel from various Lao agencies.
“Our Party has set a target to reduce the number of poor families to 10 percent by 2015 and I think this goal can be achieved, but all sectors need to work harder,” he said.
Mr Savang explained that the number of poor villages has declined to 3,216, or 37.16 percent of the country's total 8.654 villages.
The government classifies a village as poor based on five socio-economic criteria: if more than 51 percent of residents in a village are impoverished; if there is no primary school or it requires more than one hour of travel to attend; if there is a lack of medical services or the nearest district hospital is more than two hours away; if residents don't have a regular supply of clean water; and if road access is limited or only passable during one season of the year.
Currently, the number of villages in Laos where more than 51 percent of families are poor is around 26.28 percent, which makes it the government's top priority. This is closely followed by the number of villages which have inadequate road access at 24.39 percent. The third most urgent issue is a lack of clean water in 11.47 percent of Lao villages.
But it is not all bad news, as 94.44 percent of the country's villages now have access to medical services, and 98.24 percent of villages have primary schools.
Based on the number of villages classified as poor, Phongsaly province faces the greatest development challenges, with 80 percent of villages falling into the category.
This is followed by Huaphan province (72.22 percent), Oudomxay province (70.49 percent), Attapeu province (67.33 percent) and Xekong province (59.83 percent).
Vientiane is ranked the number one without any poor villages. Other provinces with low percentages of poor villages include Xayaboury (9.42), Khammuan (12.93), Champassak (14.15) and Vientiane province (23.56).
The number of poor districts nationwide has so far declined to 54, or 37.76 percent, meaning that 89 of the country's 143 districts have escaped poverty.
A poor district is classified as a district where 51 percent of all villages in the district are themselves classified as poor.
The survey has found that the number of the country's development families has increased to 498.493, or 47.32 percent of all families.
Designated development families are those that have a stable income, solidarity within the family, and no crime or drug use among family members, who have all completed a primary school education.
The number of development villages is now 900, or 10.4 percent of all villages. A development village is classified as one that contains more than 85 percent of development families. At present, Laos has a very low number of development villages, and it is a priority of the government to lift this number.
