The number of districts officially classified as poor has fallen to 37 this year, out of a total of 145 in the country.

An official from the Lao National Committee for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication, Mr Oungeun Duangmany, told Vientiane Times  last week this figure was a significant improvement on 2010, when 47 districts were classified as poor.

“Our target is to reduce the proportion of poor families to 9 percent in 2015 as part of the plan to achieve fundamental poverty reduction,” he said.

The government is actively implementing its poverty reduction strategy in the hope of achieving its targets and removing Laos from the list of Least Developed Countries by 2020.

In 2010 the proportion of poor families was reported to be 20.40 percent but this year the number dropped to 10.57 percent.

However, rural development and poverty eradication continue to pose a difficult challenge because of insufficient fun ding.

Most people living in remote areas with limited or no road access, both in multicultural and traditional communities, suffer from a low level of education and a nature-dependent lifestyle. Few of them are able to raise crops or animals for sale, and can only produce enough for their own needs.

According to the Lao National Committee for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication, a minimum of 500 billion kip is needed for poverty reduction activities each year but the state budget doesn't run to that.

At present the government can only provide six to seven billion kip to fund poverty alleviation projects annually, which falls far short of the financing required.

The government is struggling to maintain a strong focus on sustainable agriculture, rural employment and income generation, alternative livelihoods, and the development of rural infrastructure.

The government embarked on the poverty eradication project in 1996 when the 6th Party Congress defined Laos' long-term development objective as freeing the nation from Least Developed Country status by 2020.

Unpaved road and homes in the rural area of Laos

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I don't care what kinda number they say.To me its bs,
Commie saying stuff just to make themselve look good.
Laos is POOR period ! well except for some of the elite.
Kinda like China saying they didn't have an AIDS problem
back in the day.

I love this road if it is as clean as it appears. That is my childhood road.  A road leading to mysterious laos mountains.

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