Country Economic Memorandum : Realizing the Development Potential of Lao PDR, Volume 1. Summary Overview

To sustain or exceed the 1990s annual average growth rate of 6.3 percent, Lao will need to promote agricultural and manufactured exports, and increase the contribution of natural resources to development. This will require another round of reforms,...

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Main Author: World Bank
Format: Country Economic Memorandum
Language:English
en_US
Published: Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/12/5525035/lao-country-economic-memorandum-realizing-development-potential-lao-pdr-vol-1-2-summary-overview
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14488
id okr-10986-14488
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-144882021-04-23T14:03:18Z Country Economic Memorandum : Realizing the Development Potential of Lao PDR, Volume 1. Summary Overview World Bank ACCESS TO SAFE WATER ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES AUDITS BANKS BIDDING CAPITAL COSTS CENTRAL PLANNING CLIMATE COPPER CORRUPTION DECENTRALIZATION DEFORESTATION DEVELOPED COUNTRIES ECONOMIC GROWTH EDUCATION SERVICES EFFECTIVE USE EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS EMPLOYMENT ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT EXPENDITURES FARMS FORESTRY FORESTS HEALTH SERVICES HOSPITALS HOUSEHOLDS HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IMMUNIZATION IMPORTS INCOME LEGISLATION LIVING STANDARDS LOGGING MALNUTRITION MARKETING MINES MINING MORBIDITY MORTALITY MORTALITY RATES NATURAL RESOURCES NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS PACIFIC REGION POVERTY LINE PRIVATE SECTOR PRODUCTIVITY PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS PUBLIC EXPENDITURE PUBLIC INVESTMENT PUBLIC SECTOR PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY PUBLIC SERVICES PUBLIC SPENDING PURCHASING POWER QUOTAS RENEWABLE RESOURCES RIVER BANKS SCHOOLS SOCIAL SERVICES SOCIALIZATION STATISTICAL ANALYSIS SUPPLIERS TIMBER TRANSPARENCY WAGES To sustain or exceed the 1990s annual average growth rate of 6.3 percent, Lao will need to promote agricultural and manufactured exports, and increase the contribution of natural resources to development. This will require another round of reforms, and supportive public spending. These reforms should seek to create a more enabling environment for the private sector, and for exports, to raise revenue and maintain macroeconomic stability, as well as to improve the transparency, accountability and efficiency of public expenditure management, and public service delivery. To develop natural resources and mineral reserves, Lao will need to attract substantial international and domestic capital to meet the heavy front-end capital costs required to exploit mineral deposits. To bring in that investment, however, requires improvement in governance of the mining sector, particularly in regard to partnerships with the private sector. Looking specifically at growth and poverty reduction, three scenarios for growth - base, base plus and high - show aggregate GDP growth up to 2015, rising roughly by an annual average of 4-5 percent, 5-6 percent, and 6-8 percent respectively. These indicate that this long-term growth will be driven largely by manufacturing (industry) and services, with growth from agriculture though important in the initial years, its contribution declining in the long-term. These growth scenarios depend very much on the pace and depth of reforms the country implements. Additionally, rising government revenues from natural resources alone will not suffice to meet social needs. On current trends, for example, per capita recurrent expenditures in health hardly increase until 2015. The country will need to take additional revenue measures and reallocate expenditures to increase recurrent expenditures on social sectors. To be effective, such revenue and expenditure measures must also be accompanied by efficient improvements in the service delivery mechanisms, i.e., increasing the participation of the poor. 2013-07-23T17:29:30Z 2013-07-23T17:29:30Z 2004-12-23 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/12/5525035/lao-country-economic-memorandum-realizing-development-potential-lao-pdr-vol-1-2-summary-overview http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14488 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Country Economic Memorandum Economic & Sector Work East Asia and Pacific Lao People's Democratic Republic
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic ACCESS TO SAFE WATER
ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES
AUDITS
BANKS
BIDDING
CAPITAL COSTS
CENTRAL PLANNING
CLIMATE
COPPER
CORRUPTION
DECENTRALIZATION
DEFORESTATION
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ECONOMIC GROWTH
EDUCATION SERVICES
EFFECTIVE USE
EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS
EMPLOYMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
EXPENDITURES
FARMS
FORESTRY
FORESTS
HEALTH SERVICES
HOSPITALS
HOUSEHOLDS
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
IMMUNIZATION
IMPORTS
INCOME
LEGISLATION
LIVING STANDARDS
LOGGING
MALNUTRITION
MARKETING
MINES
MINING
MORBIDITY
MORTALITY
MORTALITY RATES
NATURAL RESOURCES
NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS
PACIFIC REGION
POVERTY LINE
PRIVATE SECTOR
PRODUCTIVITY
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE
PUBLIC INVESTMENT
PUBLIC SECTOR
PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY
PUBLIC SERVICES
PUBLIC SPENDING
PURCHASING POWER
QUOTAS
RENEWABLE RESOURCES
RIVER BANKS
SCHOOLS
SOCIAL SERVICES
SOCIALIZATION
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
SUPPLIERS
TIMBER
TRANSPARENCY
WAGES
spellingShingle ACCESS TO SAFE WATER
ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES
AUDITS
BANKS
BIDDING
CAPITAL COSTS
CENTRAL PLANNING
CLIMATE
COPPER
CORRUPTION
DECENTRALIZATION
DEFORESTATION
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ECONOMIC GROWTH
EDUCATION SERVICES
EFFECTIVE USE
EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS
EMPLOYMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
EXPENDITURES
FARMS
FORESTRY
FORESTS
HEALTH SERVICES
HOSPITALS
HOUSEHOLDS
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
IMMUNIZATION
IMPORTS
INCOME
LEGISLATION
LIVING STANDARDS
LOGGING
MALNUTRITION
MARKETING
MINES
MINING
MORBIDITY
MORTALITY
MORTALITY RATES
NATURAL RESOURCES
NON-TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS
PACIFIC REGION
POVERTY LINE
PRIVATE SECTOR
PRODUCTIVITY
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE
PUBLIC INVESTMENT
PUBLIC SECTOR
PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY
PUBLIC SERVICES
PUBLIC SPENDING
PURCHASING POWER
QUOTAS
RENEWABLE RESOURCES
RIVER BANKS
SCHOOLS
SOCIAL SERVICES
SOCIALIZATION
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
SUPPLIERS
TIMBER
TRANSPARENCY
WAGES
World Bank
Country Economic Memorandum : Realizing the Development Potential of Lao PDR, Volume 1. Summary Overview
geographic_facet East Asia and Pacific
Lao People's Democratic Republic
description To sustain or exceed the 1990s annual average growth rate of 6.3 percent, Lao will need to promote agricultural and manufactured exports, and increase the contribution of natural resources to development. This will require another round of reforms, and supportive public spending. These reforms should seek to create a more enabling environment for the private sector, and for exports, to raise revenue and maintain macroeconomic stability, as well as to improve the transparency, accountability and efficiency of public expenditure management, and public service delivery. To develop natural resources and mineral reserves, Lao will need to attract substantial international and domestic capital to meet the heavy front-end capital costs required to exploit mineral deposits. To bring in that investment, however, requires improvement in governance of the mining sector, particularly in regard to partnerships with the private sector. Looking specifically at growth and poverty reduction, three scenarios for growth - base, base plus and high - show aggregate GDP growth up to 2015, rising roughly by an annual average of 4-5 percent, 5-6 percent, and 6-8 percent respectively. These indicate that this long-term growth will be driven largely by manufacturing (industry) and services, with growth from agriculture though important in the initial years, its contribution declining in the long-term. These growth scenarios depend very much on the pace and depth of reforms the country implements. Additionally, rising government revenues from natural resources alone will not suffice to meet social needs. On current trends, for example, per capita recurrent expenditures in health hardly increase until 2015. The country will need to take additional revenue measures and reallocate expenditures to increase recurrent expenditures on social sectors. To be effective, such revenue and expenditure measures must also be accompanied by efficient improvements in the service delivery mechanisms, i.e., increasing the participation of the poor.
format Economic & Sector Work :: Country Economic Memorandum
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Country Economic Memorandum : Realizing the Development Potential of Lao PDR, Volume 1. Summary Overview
title_short Country Economic Memorandum : Realizing the Development Potential of Lao PDR, Volume 1. Summary Overview
title_full Country Economic Memorandum : Realizing the Development Potential of Lao PDR, Volume 1. Summary Overview
title_fullStr Country Economic Memorandum : Realizing the Development Potential of Lao PDR, Volume 1. Summary Overview
title_full_unstemmed Country Economic Memorandum : Realizing the Development Potential of Lao PDR, Volume 1. Summary Overview
title_sort country economic memorandum : realizing the development potential of lao pdr, volume 1. summary overview
publisher Washington, DC
publishDate 2013
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/12/5525035/lao-country-economic-memorandum-realizing-development-potential-lao-pdr-vol-1-2-summary-overview
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14488
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