The Asian Development Bank pledged to help Laos in four development sectors of health, education and infrastructure and agriculture in order to blow out poverty.
The ADB Country Director, Mr Gil-Hong Kim, added that the income growth and poverty reduction had already outstripped targets set for the full term of ADB's Country Strategy and Programme for 2007-2011.The statement was released on 7 September in the midterm review findings of mid-term review of the ADB's country strategy and programme for Laos from 2007 to 2011, Vientiane Capital. Promoting the pro-poor sustainable economic growth, the ADB will support the private sector's development in Laos which aim at focusing on the creation of job opportunities for people, he said.
Economic growth would not appropriately be translated into job creations, he said. This will require some significant investment in education, including higher vocational and technical education, he continued.
Improvements in governance and the business environment have resulted in a surge in private and foreign investment, he said.
However, Laos needs to address some emerging challenges in order to achieve the millennium development goals and graduate from least developed country status by 2020, he said. The ADB will also help Laos to have more regional and international integration with GMS countries, which as one of the key pillars of its development agenda.
Regional integration will provide Laos with the economies of scales and opportunities to attract investment, create employment, generate income and reduce poverty.
In a media statement, the ADB said that they are committed to working with development partners to complete and expand the GMS transport corridors and place greater emphasis on strengthening secondary schooling as well as technical and higher education.
ADB economist Christopher T. Hnanggue said despite the global economic crisis, the national economic growth is projected at 5.5 percent for 2009.
This was quite high compared with some other Asean nation groups. Over the past years, the ADB's annual support has been between US$20 and 25 million, but in the future or even this year the ADB will provide US$60 million, said ADB economist Christopher.
He said that the ADB would also provide additional crisis support of about 35 million over a 2 year period, starting from this year to address the government budget shortfall caused by the global economic crisis.
During the remaining CSP implementation period, the ADB will further strengthen operational emphasis of the provisions of Strategy 2020 and continue to support the four sectors of the government's social economic development plan, he said./.