The amount of crimes committed in Laos this year is down from the number last year, prosecutors reported yesterday.

In the past year 4,034 crimes took place across the country, which is a drop of 1,054 crimes or 20.71 percent compared with a year before, the People's Prosecutor organisation reported at its nationwide meeting yesterday in Vientiane.

Crimes relating to property personally belonging to citizens were the most common, representing 33.78 percent of the total.

They were followed by crimes against the national economy, which accounted for 902 cases or 22.35 percent.

The three-day meeting blamed the crimes on the perpetrators having little knowledge of Laos' laws.

There was also blame directed at law enforcers for not conducting sufficient campaigns to disseminate information about laws and other regulations.

The people's prosecutors across the country received 2,484 petitions calling for court investigations this year, including some from the year before.

The prosecutor then recommended 2,281 of those petitions, or 91.82 percent, for court consideration.

That marked a 15.94 percentage point increase compared with the year before.

Over the past year, 93.79 percent of the 6,254 criminal cases investigators filed with the prosecutors were resolved, increasing by 9.13 percentage points compared with the previous year.

The prosecutors considered and recommended pardons for 823 people, of whom 170 were women and 22 were foreigners.

Vice President of the National Assembly Mr Somphan Phengkhammy praised the People's Prosecutor for its achievements over the past year.

He called on the organisation to learn from its experiences over the year to improve its future work.

He said many members of the public and even government officials had continued to breach laws and regulations, suggesting there was still more work for the prosecutor to do.

He pressed the need to improve the professional competence of the prosecutors while enhancing their ethics and said that some prosecutors take sides when carrying out their work.

Meeting participants also discussed the work plan for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

The Head of the People's Supreme Prosecutor, Mr Khamsane Souvong, presided over the meeting and called for prosecutors across the country to collectively discuss how they would improve their work in the future.

crimes against the national economy -

I wonder what they are? ::)