Archive for the ‘Lao (លាវ)News’ Category
Myanmar, Laos hold talks on building Mekong Bridge
YANGON, March 17 (Xinhua) — Myanmar and Laos have held talks on building Mekong River-crossing Bridge, which will improve the efficiency of commodity flow between the two countries, official media reported Saturday.
The talks took place between Myanmar delegation, led by Minister of Construction U Khin Maung Myint, and visiting Lao delegation, headed by Minister of Public Works and Transport Sommad Pholsena in Nay Pyi Taw Friday, said the New Light of Myanmar.
Myanmar and Laos had sought the possibility of constructing the friendship bridge across the Mekong River in order to facilitate and enhance road connectivity between the two countries on the occasion of a visit to Myanmar of Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong in July 2011.
To promote security in the Mekong River, both sides agreed to enhance cooperation on safeguarding the navigation in the Mekong River, assuring to prevent undesirable incidents from taking place in the future along the Mekong River through timely and effective exchange of information between the security forces of the two countries.
On the same day, Myanmar President U Thein Sein met with Pholsena in the capital and their discussions focused on further deepening the amity, cooperation in construction projects and increased implementation of regional transport contributory works, the report said.
Meanwhile, U Thein Sein is due to pay a state visit to Laos next week as part of his three-country tours — Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos at the invitation of Lao President Choummaly Sayasone.
US welcomes delay on Laos dam…US damn the damp Laos
9 December 2011, The BKKPost
The United States welcomed on Thursday a delay by Southeast Asian nations on approving a controversial hydropower dam in Laos, voicing fear about the environmental effects for the Mekong River.
Laos failed at a meeting to win approval from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam to go ahead with the $3.8 billion Xayaburi dam, which activists say could spell disaster for the roughly 60 million people who depend on the waterway.
During a meeting with Mekong nations in July, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “that there’s a very serious question about this new dam and possible environmental ramifications,” her spokesman Mark Toner said.
“So we view it as a positive sign that they’re delaying looking at it,” Toner told reporters in Washington.
Senator Jim Webb, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and has been an outspoken critic of the dam, called the delay “an important step toward responsible policy.”
“The United States and the global community have a strategic and moral obligation to preserve the health and well-being of the people who depend on the Mekong River for their livelihoods and way of life,” Webb said in a statement.
The Mekong nations, at their meeting Thursday in Cambodia, called for further study on sustainable development and the potential effects of the project, which would be the first of 11 dams on the mainstream lower Mekong.
Cambodia and Vietnam fear the effects of the 1,260 megawatt Xayaburi dam on their farming and fishing industries. Thailand, however, has been more enthusiastic and has agreed to buy 95 percent of the electricity from the dam.
President Barack Obama’s administration launched the Lower Mekong Initiative in hopes of supporting the environment, health and education in the populous region, as part of a renewed effort to build relations with Southeast Asia.
Lao, Thai leaders vow to strengthen cooperation
VIENTIANE, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) — Laos and Thailand have agreed to consolidate cooperative relations between the two countries, Lao state-owned KPL News reported on Monday.
The consensus was reached during Thailand’s new Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s whirlwind visit to Laos on Sept. 16, before returning to Thailand.
During bilateral talks at the Lao government office in Vientiane, Yingluck reaffirmed her desire to strengthen trade cooperation, investment and tourism links between the two countries, and to continue to buy electricity from Laos as agreed by the two governments in previous years.
Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong said the Lao government will continue to work closely with Thailand to address issues related to the illegal migration of Lao people to Thailand, and to survey and demarcate the two countries’ shared border.
Thongsing also expressed appreciation to the Thai government and people for their kind assistance to Laos in the past, which has contributed considerably to the country’s socio-economic development and improvements to the living conditions of the Lao people.
Yingluck also used the occasion to present 2.5 billion baht ( around 75 million U.S. dollars) on behalf of the Thai government to assist Laos’ recent flood victims, and two million baht (around 6,000 U.S. dollars) to renovate secondary schools in Laos’ eastern province of Houaphan in order to boost human resource development.
Thongsing invited Yingluck to attend the Ninth Asia-Europe Meeting and the Fifth Ayeyawady-chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy Meeting, which will both be hosted by Laos next year.
On the same day, Yingluck visited Laos’ President Choummaly Sayasone and President of the Lao National Assembly Pany Yathortou.
Thailand is one of the major foreign investors in Laos, having invested in 276 projects worth 2.68 billion U.S. dollars over the past decade, according to the state-owned Vientiane Times.
Bilateral trade between Laos and Thailand reached 2.1 billion U. S. dollars in 2009, which rose to 2.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2010.
Yingluck’s one-day visit to Laos came at the invitation of Thongsing and was the fourth stop on her tour to Southeast Asian nations after being elected as the first Thai female Prime Minister in July.
Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union pledges to serve the nation
VIENTIANE, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) — The Sixth National Congress of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union (LPRYU) ended in Laos’ capital of Vientiane on Aug. 24, vowing to continue the revolutionary mission of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and work in the interests of the nation, local media reports said on Thursday.
The two-day congress also elected the sixth LPRYU Central Committee which consisted of 45 members and the Secretariat of nine members. Vilayvong Bouddakham was elected as LPRYU Secretary General, Sonthanou Thammavong and Khampha Phimmasone as deputy secretary generals, and Khampha as LPRYU Inspection Committee Chairman.
Newly elected LPRYU Secretary General Vilayvong Bouddakham was quoted by the state-owned Vientiane Times as saying that “the LPRYU will be a reliable strength for the Party and the nation by supplying young potential and representing the core rights and interests of Lao youths and young people.”
With more than 467,000 members working for the Lao government and private organizations throughout the country, the LPRYU is aiming to promote youths to be patriots endowed with knowledge and ability, progressive vision, creativity, eagerness to learn, leadership abilities and skills in technology, production and business.
The political report of the previous LPRYU Committee highlighted the achievements in implementing the Eighth Party resolution and the Fifth resolution of the union, also indicating some areas of deficiency for the union to improve on, particularly in ideological training.
The congress, which opened on Aug. 23, resolved to strengthen political ideological education and training, and ensure it reaches more than 60 percent of young people nationwide every year over the next five years. It also aimed to improve capacity building for LPRYU organizations at all levels, expand union membership to cover 30 percent of all young people throughout the nation, and 85 percent for junior members.
The union also plans to build model units under the LPRP’s ” four breakthrough approaches” to raise the spirit of competition among union members to do their best for the nation, while increasing unit membership to 50 percent of total members.
To implement its plans, the LPRYU has formulated six priority projects, which are the establishment of model youth professional groups, vocational training for rural youths, talent and creativity promotion, general knowledge and political training for non-schooling youths, youth federation establishment, and youth development funds.
Speaking on the first day of the congress, Choummaly Sayasone, the Secretary General of LPRP and Lao President, call on the LPRYU to pay more attentions to resolve behavior relating to wasteful goodwill, behavior contradicting national culture and tradition, and conducts that damage social order.
Representatives from the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, government ministries, agencies and mass organisations joined 531 Lao youth delegates at the congress.
The LPRYU, the youth wing of the LPRP, originated in 1955 as the Youth Combatant Association, dedicated to mobilize young people throughout the country with a view to contribute to national development.
Vietnamese, Lao top legislators hold talks in Hanoi
HANOI, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) — Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung held talks here on Thursday with Lao National Assembly President Pany Yathotu during the latter’s visit to Vietnam.
Both sides informed each other of their NA activities and discussed measures to develop relations between the two parties and assemblies, as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern.
Hung warmly welcomed Yathotu’s visit, saying it manifested vividly the Vietnam-Laos special relationship fostered over the years.
The Vietnamese top legislator congratulated success of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party’s 9th Congress and the elections of Lao 7th National Assembly.
Speaking of the recent visits to Vietnam by Lao President Chummaly Sayasone, and to Laos by Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Hung said that the exchange of visits by the two countries’ high-ranking leaders would contribute to consolidating both sides’ solidarity and developing the Vietnam- Laos special relationship to a higher level, and preparing for the 50th celebration of their diplomatic relations in 2012.
Hung also highly appreciated efforts made by both assemblies through bilateral and multilateral cooperative activities, saying the friendship between the two governments, assemblies and peoples is an invaluable asset that should be well preserved.
Yathotu congratulated Hung to be elected as the top legislator of the Vietnamese assembly, saying she believed under his leadership relationship between the Vietnamese and Lao assemblies would be further developed.
To develop the special relations between the two states and assemblies of Vietnam and Laos, the two sides should promote their coordination, especially in joint supervision of investment projects to ensure high efficiency, Yathotu said.
At the invitation of Vietnamese NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung, Pany Yathotu led a Lao national assembly delegation to visit Vietnam, on Aug. 24-27.
Laos forests feeding Vietnam industry, group says
AP—BANGKOK – Despite an export ban, Vietnamese companies are smuggling logs from the once rich forests of Laos to feed a billion-dollar wood industry that turns timber into furniture for export to the Europe and the United States, an environmental group said on Thursday.
The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency alleged that the Vietnamese military was heavily involved in bribing Lao officials and then trafficking the timber on a massive scale to wood processing factories in neighbouring Vietnam. This was denied by the government and military.
Laos, with some of the last intact tropical forests in the region, in 1999 slapped a ban on the export of raw timber and says it is expanding its forest cover. But there are widespread reports of rampant logging, often associated with the country’s mushrooming dam projects and agricultural plantations.
‘Vietnam is almost annexing areas of Laos to feed its own industries. The only winners in Laos are corrupt government officials and well-connected businessmen,’ Julian Newman, an EIA staffer, said at a news conference. The group focuses on environmental crime worldwide.
Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga denied the allegations.
Donation benefits more than 37,000 people in Laos
VIENTIANE, July 5 (Xinhua) — More than 37,000 people in five provinces in Laos received donations of rice and vegetable oil from the World Food Program (WFP) through the United States Embassy to Laos to cover their basic nutritional needs ahead of the next harvest.
People in Khammuane, Savannakhet, Saravane, Sekong and Attapeu provinces received a three-month food ration of 1,460 metric tons of rice and 100 metric tons of vegetable oil to address shortages caused by severe drought and flash floods in 2010.
Cornelia Paetz, Public Information Officer of WFP, told Xinhua on Tuesday that the contribution was confirmed in May, explaining that “food is already being moved and is expected to arrive in Laos in August or September this year.”
WFP will work with the Lao government and non-governmental organizations to assist all affected communities in the five provinces.
“The months before the wet season rice is harvested in November are known as the lean season because food stocks are at their lowest,” said Eri Kudo, WFP Country Representative to Laos, adding that “on top of these seasonal shortages, farmers who suffered from erratic weather in 2010 have had a reduced harvest and are now left with no food to feed their families.”
Families who were affected by Typhoon Ketsana in late 2009 were among the hardest hit by adverse weather conditions in 2010. The prolonged dry season, lasting throughout June, forced farmers to replant their fields several times, exhausting the already stretched resources of the poorest families. When the rains did arrive, some villages suffered from flash floods that washed out newly planted fields.
In 2010, WFP Lao PDR provided close to 17,500 metric tons of food to 665,900 people throughout the country.
A 2010 Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission conducted jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization and WFP identified over 111,000 people in central and southern Lao in need of food assistance before the next harvest.
Thongsing Thammavong appointed as Prime Minister of Laos
VIENTIANE, June 15 (Xinhua) — Politburo member of the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Thongsing Thammavong was appointed as Prime Minister of Laos on Wednesday morning, the first day of the First Session of the seventh Lao National Assembly (NA).
Thongsing was first appointed as Lao Prime Minister after a cabinet reshuffle in December 2010.
This session of the 132-member assembly, which was convened Wednesday in the Lao capital of Vientiane and will conclude on June 24, is to vote on the country’s state leadership for the next five-year tenure and discuss issues relating to the assembly’s apparatus.
The ten-day session will also define orientations for the NA’s general affairs, discuss the government’s seventh five-year socio-economic development plan for 2011-2015, and adopt the amended statute on tax.
Choummaly Sayasone retains Lao presidency
VIENTIANE, June 15 (Xinhua) — General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Choummaly Sayasone was re-elected as President of Laos on Wednesday morning, the first day of the First Session of the seventh Lao National Assembly (NA).
Choummaly was first elected as President of Laos in 2006 during the previous NA, Laos’ parliamentary body.
This session of the 132-member assembly, which was convened Wednesday in the Lao capital of Vientiane and will conclude on June 24, is to vote on the country’s state leadership for the next five-year tenure and discuss issues relating to the assembly’s apparatus.
The ten-day session will also define polices for the NA’s general affairs, discuss the government’s seventh five-year socio-economic development plan for 2011-2015, and adopt the amended statute on tax.
Pany Yathotu re-elected as President of Laos’ National Assembly
VIENTIANE, June 15 (Xinhua) — Politburo member of the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Pany Yathotu was elected to retain her position as president of the National Assembly (NA) of Laos on Wednesday morning, the first day of the First Session of the seventh Lao NA.
Pany was first elected as president of the NA of Laos after a cabinet reshuffle in December 2010.
This session of the 132-member assembly, which was convened Wednesday in the Lao capital of Vientiane and will conclude on June 24, is to vote on the country’s state leadership for the next five-year tenure and discuss issues relating to the assembly’s apparatus.
The ten-day session will also define orientations for the NA’s general affairs, discuss the government’s seventh five-year socio-economic development plan for 2011-2015, and adopt the amended statute on tax.
