The World Bank expects to mobilise US$60 million a year as Official Development Assistance for Laos because the country needs more financial support to diversify its economic base and expand healthcare into rural and mountainous areas.
Ms Keiko Miwa.
Speaking at a press conference in Vientiane yesterday after the official launch of the Country Partnership Strategy, World Bank Country Manager Ms Keiko Miwa said the bank expected to mobilise about US$60 million a year to implement the new Country Partnership Strategy.
“We are expecting about US$60 million per year but what I would really like to emphasise here is that our support contribution to Laos will depend on the performance of the programme,” she said.
“Funding has been increasing over the last 10 years because of the performance of the programme. We hope that trend will continue.”
From 2005 to 2011, the bank mobilised about US$331 million as Official Development Assistance for Laos.
According to the Country Partnership Strategy from 2012 to 2016, the Lao government and World Bank plan to achieve three development objectives over the next five years.
The first goal is to help Laos increase competitiveness and connectivity, secondly to manage the use of natural resources sustainably, and thirdly to ensure inclusive development of the country.
To achieve the first objective on competitiveness and connectivity, the World Bank will support Laos to create a sound business and investment environment making it easier for the private sector to obtain a business licence. The bank will also help Laos to build and improve roads so that it can serve as a transit country for the region.
Bolstering competitiveness and connectivity will play an important role in enabling Laos to attract more local and foreign investment, especially in the non resource sector. This will allow diversification of the economic base and ensure sustainable development and growth of the national economy.
Laos plans for the non resource sector to contribute more than half of GDP in the near term and 75 percent of GDP in the medium term.
To achieve the second objective of sustainable natural resource management, the World Bank will help Laos to strengthen its criteria framework so that it can select the most efficient hydropower and mining investment projects.
The bank will also help to strengthen the capacity building of government officials, and strengthen enforcement in environment and water resource management. The bank will also support Laos in protecting and expanding forestry.
To achieve the third objective on inclusive development, the bank will help Laos to improve the quality and availability of healthcare so that everyone, especially women, children and people from remote ethnic groups, can access quality health services.
The bank will also continue to help Laos improve access to and the quality of primary education through child-centred teacher and principal training.
The bank will also help Laos to provide teaching materials for schools, to develop feeding prorammes, and build more schools.
World Bank launches new development strategy for Laos
The World Bank launched its new Country Partnership Strategy for Laos for 2012-2016, and spoke well of the Laos’ achievements in the last 5 yrs at a press conference Monday. The World Bank has been working in partnership with the Lao government to promote development for the past decades with considerable gains. The Country Partnership Strategy lays out the World Bank’s strategic approach to supporting the implementation of the Lao government’s Seventh National Socio-Economic Development Plan.
The new strategy, with an overarching goal of sustainable and inclusive development, will focus on three measurable objectives: competitiveness and connectivity, sustainable natural resources management, and inclusive development. These three goals will be linked by a cross-cutting theme of strengthening public sector management.
Speaking at the press conference, the World Bank Country Manager for Laos Keiko Miwa painted an optimistic picture of the country’s recent progress, “The GNI (Gross National Income) has increased dramatically over the last 5 yrs reaching US$1,100 in Y 2011, with this Laos is now a lower middle income economy. We are expecting this economy to grow on average about 7.6% over the next 5 yrs. Inflation has been checked and foreign investment has more than doubled in 5 yrs.”
The previous 2006-2011 World Bank Country Assistance Strategy was evaluated by the World Bank to have been implemented satisfactorily. This rating places it in the top two among the forty countries implementing assistance/partnership strategies over the last five years.
The previous assistance strategy had four main objectives: sustaining growth, improving social outcomes and reducing vulnerability, developing capacity and partnership, and supporting the implementation of a major hydropower project called Nam Theun 2.
The new strategy was developed in consultation with the Lao government and the Asian Development Bank. “Funding for many of the programs is co-financed by other development partners such as Australia, European countries, Japan, Switzerland, and the UN agencies,” Keiko explained.
