Keynote Speech by H.E. Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith, Deputy Prime Minister,

 Keynote Speech
by H.E. Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith, Deputy Prime Minister,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Lao PDR,
at the Opening Session of the Final Regional Review of the Almaty
Programme of Action
5 March 2013, Vientiane, Lao PDR
________________________
Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of
UNESCAP,
Mr. Gyan Chandra Archarya, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative
for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small
Island Developing States,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me at the outset extend my warm welcome to all of you to Vientiane and to
this important regional review meeting, which the Lao PDR has the honour to host. This
meeting is of great importance for the preparation of the global ten-year review of the
Almaty Program of Action and I express my sincere appreciation to all of you for your
presence and participation in this meeting. I am confident that with your full and active
participation our deliberation would render a fruitful outcome and great success.
I would also like to commend UNESCAP, OHRLLS and UNECE for their support
and cooperation in the organization of this regional review and in ensuring a successful
outcome.
Excellencies, Distinguished delegates,
For several decades now, a state of landlockness had been recognized as a unique
challenge faced by landlocked countries. In the early 1970s, the United Nations admitted
that the landlocked developing countries are handicapped by their own geographical
location and require international cooperation. This handicap is characterized by
remoteness to the world market, cumbersome in transit transport procedures and poor
infrastructure. This handicap would further exacerbate if it is compounded by the other
negative emerging phenomenon such as natural disaster, climate change and global
economic crises. However, the impact of such handicap can be alleviated and addressed
effectively if genuine cooperation between the landlocked, transit developing countries
1 and development partners can be forged. In this context, the implementation of the
Almaty Program of Action is a clear test of how the international community advances
the cause of LLDCs.
Today we are in the process of stock taking of how the Almaty Program of Action
has been carried out, what achievement has been recorded and what action is needed in
order to further address the special needs and problems of LLDCs. These are the task
ahead of us as we prepare ourselves for the Second International Conference for LLDCs
in early 2014.
Over the past ten years, considerable achievements in addressing the special
problems and needs of LLDCs has been recorded. However, much needs to be done as
LLDCs are yet to face great challenges in integrating into regional and global economic
and trading system. It is important to note that the implementation progress of the Almaty
Program of Action has severely been affected by the high structural vulnerability of
LLDCs in the context of recent global developments. The world economy including the
regional development scenario has undergone drastic changes over the last few years.
The modest economic growth achieved by LLDCs during the last decade has recently
come under increasing threat due to successive global food, fuel, and financial crises. As
a result, most LLDCs are falling short in achieving various social targets including the
MDGs while many are severely affected by the adverse impact of climate change,
desertification and land degradation.
Excellencies, Distinguished delegates,
The absence of a voice in the evolving global economic governance has led to the
marginalization of LLDC concerns. The Euro-Asian LLDCs, in general, have witnessed
significant fluctuations in economic growth and export performance in recent years
emanating mainly from the global economic crisis. Despite notable progress made since
2003, LLDCs continue to remain marginalized in global trade, thus preventing them from
reaping the benefits of globalization and using trade as an instrument for achieving their
development objectives. Over the past decade, the share of LLDCs’ exports in world
trade has remained around 0.8 per cent for merchandise trade and 0.5 per cent for
services trade. As such LLDCs face the urgent challenge of wider exploitation of the
potential of regional economic integration especially in terms of rising intra-regional
trade and intra-regional foreign direct investment flows and improving connectivity
through transport, energy and ICT networks. Similarly, the signing of a number of
2 preferential trade agreements has not led to adequate materialization of the opportunities
for enhanced market access and new South-South trade for LLDCs. Nevertheless, I am
pleased to inform this meeting that the Lao PDR has become the newest member of WTO
in February 2013 and we expect to derive some benefits from our membership.
I am of the view that one of the urgent priorities for LLDCs is to establish efficient
transit transport systems for which genuine partnerships are required between the public
and private sectors and between landlocked and transit developing countries and their
development partners at the national, sub-regional, regional, and global levels. For
successful collaboration, the partnerships need to be based on mutual benefits emanating
from specific actions agreed under the Almaty Program of Action. The key to success
would be the provision of financial and technical support by the international community
including the financial and development institutions to help LLDCs to deal effectively
with their transit transport problems and requirements. The 10-year review of the Almaty
Program of Action provides an excellent opportunity to identify potential hindrance in
addressing the problems of LLDCs and adopt possible actions and measures to be carried
out in the next decade in order to mitigate the negative impacts of our landlockedness.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
At the national level, the Lao Government is strongly committed to effective
implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action, which has extensively been
mainstreamed into our national socio-economic development plan. Our national economy
has been growing steadily at an average of 8% annually, foreign direct investment has
increased by more than 30%, and the poverty reduction target set in the 5-Year Plan has
been met, thus gradually improving the livelihood of the Lao people. These positive
developments have laid a solid foundation for attaining the MDGs by 2015 and created
conditions conducive for the country to graduate from LDC status by 2020. Trade
between Laos and its trading partners is expected to grow through closer economic
cooperation under the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). To promote trade, our
respective countries are negotiating to reduce fees at border crossings and clarify trade
and investment rules for foreign investors. Two-way investment is also expected to
expand as investors find it easier to move labor and raw materials under the AEC.
3 Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
It is important to remind ourselves that over the past ten years, new challenges and
opportunities have arisen for LLDCs that were not envisaged at the time when the United
Nations adopted the Almaty Programme of Action for LLDCs in 2003. The new global
development agenda, particularly post-2015 MDG agenda and Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) process, therefore needs to focus on groups of countries in special situations
including LLDCs. The recent triple crises and the increasing impact of climate change
have painfully exposed the specific vulnerabilities of countries with special needs like
LLDCs. The new global partnership for development needs to prioritize these countries
with special needs with a view to supporting them in their efforts to leave poverty traps.
It also needs to focus on building resilience for long-term sustainable development in the
broadest sense.
I wish to reiterate that the current Final Regional Review has a very important role
to play in determining the outcome of the new Programme of Action for LLDCs for the
next decade. We now have an excellent opportunity to work together towards developing
a common Euro-Asian LLDCs’ action, which you can use to influence the outcome of the
formulation of the new partnership framework of cooperation for LLDCs during the Final
Global Review. I wish to reiterate that in its capacity as Chair of the LLDC Group, the
Lao PDR will do its utmost to achieve this objective and we count on the support of all
the LLDCs, transit countries and our development partners to assist LLDCs realize this
important goal. In this context, I would like to encourage all of you to actively and
constructively engage in the deliberation of this review in order to ensure a more concrete
outcome.
On this note, let me wish the meeting a very productive and successful outcome,
ensuring the realization of our common cause as well as achieving prosperity for all.
Thank you
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