Opening Statement by H.E. Douangchit ... - GMS-EOC

impressive economic growth rate of 9.35%. Agriculture is the biggest sector, making up 48.59% of the
province’s economy and growing at the rate of 4.7%. Reflecting its large agricultural sector, the Xiengkhouang
province is a major food producer within Lao PDR.
Xiengkhouang has also made significant progress on socio-economic development. The province has roads
which connect urban to rural areas. Education and public health networks have been expanded to all villages
in the province. One hundred percent of children and women can enter these facilities to receive services.
Population in 332 villages around the province, or equal to 70.54% of the total provincial population, has
access to electricity. Despite such significant progress, development challenges remain. 8.75% of all families
in the province are still poor, lacking of based infrastructures such as electricity, clean water, road and so on.
In addition, 131 villages are classified as poor, which accounts for 25.34% of all poor villages around the
country.
The Provincial Social-Economic Development Plan provides development direction for the Xiengkhouang
province from now to 2015. Under the plan, the province will continue to rapidly develop, with a goal to
achieve an average growth rate of more than 9% per year. Priority economic sectors include 1) modern
industry focusing on animal husbandry as the first priority; 2) tourism and services as the second priority; 3)
and agro-manufacturing industry and metal mining as the third priority. Considerations will be given to
identifying potentials in all economic sectors for development integration. Poverty eradication efforts will focus
on human development. Regional cooperation within the GMS and broader international cooperation will be
pursued to support socio-economic development of the province.
Honored Guests,
We know that both people and businesses can participate in, and share the benefits from, the integration of
agriculture development and environmental protection. To achieve the benefits, we need to promote ecofriendly
agriculture by transferring best practices and achievements from various successful projects in the
past to new projects. Economic, social, and environmental objectives of these projects must be balanced. In
developing the agriculture, natural resources, and environment sectors more broadly, we must also keep in
mind the ultimate objective of achieving both economic growth and millennium development goals, in order to
lead Lao PDR out of the least developed country status in 2020.
I hope that you will use this meeting as an opportunity to evaluate past achievements of both the Core
Agricultural Support Program (CASP) and Core Environment Program and Biodiversity Conservation
Corridors Initiative (CEP -BCI). The evaluation should inform the work plan of phase II of both programs.
Specifically, opportunities should be identified to improve and expand on the past achievements and create a
cooperation plan of the WGA and WGE in a sustainable and thorough manner.
On behalf of the Lao government and the provincial authority, I would like to use this auspicious occasion to
extend sincere thanks to our friendly neighbor countries, international organizations, social organizations,
financial institutes and internal and external experts for assistance and support for the agriculture and
environment sectors in Lao PDR. Your contribution is essential to Lao PDR’s effort to move away from the
least developed country status by 2020.
In closing, I wish all achievements of this meeting would contribute to the implementation of the Provincial
Socio-economic Development plan for Xiengkhouang. More broadly, I wish the outcome of this meeting would
also contribute to sustainable development of agriculture, natural resources and environment in Lao PDR.
Finally, on the occasion of the Lao New Year (water festival) which is coming soon, I wish everyone present
today good health, happiness and enjoyable stay in Xiengkhouang.
At this auspicious minute, I declare the 10 th WGA Annual Meeting and the 19 th WGE Annual Meeting of the
GMS Economic Cooperation Program officially opened.
Thank you.