Govt clarifies state investment projects on poverty reduction

(KPL) The mega investment projects of state have been suspended because no have effective survey and lacked fund, said Mr. Bounthavy Sisouphanyhong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment at the 7th Ordinary Session of the National Assembly on 25 June.
Those projects include the Nam Bac irrigation, Xieng Khuang province with amount of 96 billion kip and Sackmeuang irrigation project in Champassak province.
All members expressed concern about funds spending on state investment and they asked for the government to clarify the expenditure of these projects. Mr. Bounthavy revealed information to NA members, in every years, the government spends 3,000 to 4,000 billion kip on state investment projects. The money comes from the national budget and oversea assistance.
The government has spent funds on rural development plans include the development village fund.
Over the past six months, the government has released 41.7 billion kip of loan to poorest people in 47 districts of the country. The poverty reduction fund received 186.8 billion kip of loan from the World Bank.
The money focused on 19 poorest districts out of 47 poorest districts by constructing infrastructure and training on vocational for local people to help them to get more income.
There are 135 infrastructure development projects are conducting on 38 billion kip, of which 7 billion kip was state investment in poorest districts of six provinces. The government has established a participatory plan for poverty reduction which is being conducted in 47 poorest districts with worth 30 billion kip.
In addition the Nayobay Bank has released credits loan to development projects.
The Government also spent money on the establishment of Border Development Fund focusing on integrated rural development. In 2009-2010, the government has arranged more than 17 billion kip for the integrated rural development project.
So far, the Nam Thuen II Hydropower dam project contributed 50 billion kip t poverty reduction fund, of which 17 billion kip was spent on education sector, 10 billion kip for public health sector, 15 billon kip for construction of roads in rural areas and 8 billion kip for environment protection and electricity maintenance in rural areas, Mr. Bounthavy said.
According to our estimates, we need to invest 16,000 billion kip to ensure economic growth at 7.5 percent,” he said.
Mr. Bounthavy also talked about the foreign investment in Laos continued to increase when compared to the last year which had only 400 million dollar but this year the foreign investment reached 3,900 million dollar.

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