Laos' Thongphath Vongmany attends 2021 Global Rural Development Forum

Thongphath Vongmany, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos, the 2021 Global Rural Development Forum in Beijing, on October 19, 2021.

Here is the full text of his speech at the forum:

Distinguished guest,

Ladies and gentlemen,

At the outset, I would like to apologize that Minister of Agriculture and Forestry could not make himself available to attend this important event, as he engages in the Government meeting today. And it is my great pleasure to be assigned by H.E. Minister to participate on behalf.

Please allow me to congratulate all speakers for their remarks on the poverty reduction successes in their respective countries, and the related lessons learnt. These will surely contribute to the global poverty alleviation in 2030 accordingly to the SDGs.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, Lao PDR has around 70% of population who lives in rural areas and is dependent upon agriculture both the cropping and the rearing of livestock as their main income sources and depend on natural resources.

However, our agriculture sector has been facing unavoidable challenges due to climate change including flooding, outbreaks of crop pests and animal diseases and now the COVID-19 pandemic which affected to the poverty rate increased by 1.7%. In response, the Lao government determine 6 goals in the 9th five-year National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2021-2025) : 1) National economy growth in a good quality, stable and sustainable way, 2) Human resources development, 3) Livelihood upgrade, 4) Environmental protection in a well-balanced manner, 5) towards economic integration, and 6) state good governance and effectiveness. Specifically our Agriculture Development Strategies focus on four programmes such as : Food Security, Agriculture Commercialization, Sustainable Forest and Forest Resources Management, and Rural Development and Poverty Eradication.

In the context of the focused policies and efforts, we have continued to promote the growth with the focus on Rural Development and Poverty Reduction, and implement the Law on resettlement and vocational management, the order 097 of Politburo Party, the decree 348 on well-being and development community.

Lao Government has also collaborated with the countries and international organizations and institutions, especially through Lao-China Poverty Reduction Pilot Projects that implemented and implementing under both under Langcang Mekong Cooperation framework and bilateral cooperation in agriculture sector, in order to support our main objectives to achieve adequate food security and good nutrition, modernizing and diversifying agricultural production toward a green agricultural ecological system and sustainable livelihood for the people, escially those who are living along the Laos China Railway that planned to give services officially in December this year.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Lao PDR, I am very delighted to take this opportunity to let you know that this Laos-China train will start to operate in few weeks. This will be a great opportunity for the Lao PDR in terms of economic integration and connectivity Land lock to Land Link pushing forward the poverty reduction in the country.

In this regards, I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate the Chinese Government for its continue supports both financially and technically of sharing best experiences for us. Last but not least, I believe the fruitfulness and sharing experiences throughout the theme of this forum would guide ways to the region and the world to realize effectiveness and methodology to adapt this new situation to alleviate the poverty. To end my remark, I wish the Forum pursuing smoothly and concretely.

Thank you