The Japan government has provided assistance worth 873,205 USD to implement a unexploded ordinances (UXO) clearance project in Laos under the Grant Assistance Scheme for Japanese NGOs Projects.
A document to this effect was signed last week in Vientiane by Masaaki Miyashita, Japanese Ambassador in Laos and Tomoyasu Tagawa, Country Representative of the Japan Mine Action Service (JMAS), a Japanese NGO.
Under this project, JMAS will provide financial and technical support for the activities of UXO Laos such as UXO clearance and Mine Risk Education in eight districts in Xieng Khouang province, Lao news agency (KPL) reported.
About two million tonnes of explosive ordinances were dropped on Laos during the war and 10 to 30 percent of them still remains as UXOs.
The Japanese government has supported the Lao UXO sector since 1999.