LAOS

His Excellency Sisavath Keobounphanh, Vice-President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic

On behalf of the delegation of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, I feel deeply honoured and pleased to participate in this World Food Summit meeting being held here in Rome, the beautiful capital of Italy, a city endowed with world-renowned archaeological monuments. First of all, I would like to express our deep appreciation, as well as our sincere thanks for the warm welcome extended to us and express our satisfaction to FAO for organizing this historic world meeting.

At the same time, I would like to extend our special congratulations to His Excellency, Mr. Romano Prodi, for being unanimously elected as the Chairman of this World Food Summit. We are firmly convinced that under his highly-experienced chairmanship, this Summit will certainly be successful.

Generally speaking, my country, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, still has enormous unexplored potential such as land and water resources, forests and mines. The total surface area amounts to 236 800 kms², with a population of 4.6 million inhabitants, equivalent to a population density of 19.4 people per square kilometre, with a growth rate of 2.6 percent per annum. The agricultural land covers about 4 million hectares, of which only 600 000 hectares are currently being used for rice growing. Forests occupy 11.2 million hectares, which is the equivalent of 47 percent of the country's total land. The Mekong River represents the most important waterway of the country, running from the North down to the South with many tributaries, thus facilitating the supply of water for agricultural and forestry production as well as for shipping and hydropower development. In addition, our pluri-ethnic population has a tradition of diligence in working hard for food production. The country enjoys firm political and social stability and, at the same time, receives assistance and technical support from foreign countries together with support from international organizations. All of this continues to be encouraging to us.

However, in spite of the potential and advantages mentioned above, we have not so far been able to solve the food problem in a secure manner. The main reasons are certainly that our country is still one of the least developed countries in the world, natural disasters such as droughts and floods are very common. The lack of funds to promote food production and to invest in the prevention of natural calamities is quite obvious. On the other hand, the application of new technology and scientific measures in food production by our farmers, is still limited in many fields. Therefore, the food productivity in my country is still very low.

Facing such a situation in previous years, the Lao Government took various measures in order to increase food production. Though food output has increased, year after year, it has not yet stabilized. Sparing no efforts, our Government has consistently given high priority to food production and we have set the target of the year 2000, by which time we hope that there will be enough food for local consumption along with some reserves.

In order to achieve this goal for the year 2000, our Government has adopted some essential measures which are as follows:

· We shall concentrate mainly on the production of rice and starch crops as well as on the production of animals in the six major plains areas of the country - as well as in those medium plains areas of each province in order to continuously increase food production;

· We shall focus on the development of large-, medium- and small-scale irrigation systems, mainly involving a participatory approach by the people. The construction of medium- and small-scale irrigation work is done through cooperative efforts among villages and household communities. The Government confines its investments mainly to the construction of large-scale irrigation works;

· We shall concentrate on the preservation of our forests and in coordination with reforestation work. We shall mobilize as many people as we can, as well as all the economic sectors in the country, with the aim of preserving water courses from drying up, thus providing a continuous water supply for food production and hydro-electric energy;

· We shall improve and extend agriculture and forestry research stations and their associated activity networks so that improved crop varieties and animal breeds, as well as new technology, can be generated and supplied adequately to producers;

· We shall focus on upgrading the skills and qualifications of field extension workers so that they can be capable of effectively transferring new technology to farmers;

· In order to facilitate the acquisition of funds from credit institutions so that farmers can have access to production inputs such as fertilizers, farm equipment and machinery, we shall focus on this aspect as well as extending roads and electricity networks into the rural areas in order to serve as a favourable means to improve food production and market integration;

· We shall pay attention to the promotion of investment in agro-processing industries in order to modernize the entire agricultural sector on a gradual, step-by-step basis;

· We shall increase cooperation with foreign countries in the form of grants, low interest loans and we shall encourage foreign businesses to invest in food production activities in keeping with international standards.

The Government will formulate policy and elaborate regulations in order to facilitate both local and foreign investment in order to expand food production rapidly.

My delegation is delighted to see the unanimous acceptance of both the Rome Declaration and the Plan of Action by the Summit meeting. Therefore, the Lao Government and its people will seriously strive for the realization of the Plan of Action with a view to giving everyone enough food and eradicating food insecurity on the basis of increasing local investment and local endeavours. Due to the lack of financial support for new technology know-how capable of producing sufficient foodstuffs, my delegation feels that this is an auspicious occasion for us to make an appeal to the Summit for assistance in those particular fields. We are confident that under the wise leadership of our Government, with the strong tradition of hard work on the part of our people, and benefitting from friendly countries as well as assistance from international organizations, our country will surely solve the problem of food by the year 2000.

Once again, on this occasion, on behalf of the Lao Government and people, I would like to express our heartfelt thanks for the support and the cooperation afforded to us by our friends all over the world and to FAO for continuously assisting our Government and people. This assistance and support have concretely contributed to the wellbeing of the Lao people, as well as to the construction and the development of our country. In the years to come, the Lao Government and people hope that friendly countries, as well as FAO, will continue to provide us with support in order to eliminate poverty in this region of the world and to speed up the development of Laotian society.

Lastly, I wish this Summit meeting every success in its endeavours.