Govt, development partners confer on economic development
Govt, development partners confer on economic development
The growth of the Lao economy still requires close cooperation between the government and development partners, a meeting in the capital heard.
Government officials from relevant sectors and development partner representatives from several international organisations met in Vientiane yesterday to share information and address macro- economic and development issues.
The Macroeconomic Working Group Consultation Meeting was organised by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and co-chaired by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, Dr Khamlien Pholsena, Asian Development Bank' Senior Country Specialist, Lao Resident Mission, Mr Shunsuke Bando and World Bank's Senior Country Economist, Country Manager, Mr Evgenij Najdov.
The key objectives of the meeting were to present and discuss issues on the implementation of the annual Nation Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP) between 2015 and 2016 and the draft annual plan for 2017.
These issues would be brought into the agenda of the 8th National Assembly's Ordinary Session and the Round Table Meeting 2016 which would be held in the last quarter of this year.
Dr Khamlien stated that the annual national socio-economic development plan 2017 emphasis is on poverty reduction, food and nutrition, rural infrastructure development, education and public health services.
In addition, debt servicing, effective and quality investment, enhancement of local co mpetitiveness and productivity, promotion of processing industry including SMEs are also included in the annual NSEDP 2017.
In conjunction with these issues, the plan also pays special attention to environmental protection and green growth development, increasing revenues and effective expenditure utilization.
At the meeting the International Monetary Fund (IMF) briefly presented findings of the IMF 2016 Article IV Mission with Laos which was followed by a representative of the World Bank presenting the Importance of Private Sector for Growth and Obstacles.
Through the presentations, we will be able to learn the updated implementation of the development plan and fiscal situation which helps development partners to understand the fiscal challenges and effectively identify what kind of support is really needed, Mr Bando said.
In the future, we can develop this working group from information sharing to a platform to address development challenges through collaboration between the government and development partners, he added.
The government and development partners also pointed out the importance of the economic stability and macro management in all sectors and acknowledged a strong requirement of wide cooperation in order to achieve sustainable, green and inclusive development. Thus, the meeting urged continued support from the international organisations.
