Thursday, March 24, 2011

Mass celebration marks Party's founding anniversary, success of 9th Congress

More than 1,000 people gathered at the National Culture Hall in Vientiane yesterday to mark the 56th anniversary of the founding of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and celebrate the achievements of the Ninth Party Congress.

Party Secretary General Choummaly Sayasone attends a gathering at the National Culture Hall in Vientiane to mark the founding of the Party and achievements of the Ninth Party Congress.
New Party leaders elected during the Ninth Party Congress, which closed on Monday, also attended the gathering, including Secretary General Choummaly Sayasone, Politburo and Party Central Committee members.

Vientiane Mayor Sombat Yialiher highlighted the Party's background since its establishment in leading the Lao people to fight for national liberation, as well as the various development achievements under its leadership.

He said the Party was founded on March 22, 1955, having had origins in the Indochina Communist Party, led by Ho Chi Minh at the time.

The establishment of the LPRP marked the first time that the Lao people had leadership in the revolutionary fight for freedom against foreign aggressors.
“The establishment of the Party was in response to the needs of Lao people, who wanted a party to lead their fight and encourage all Lao people to make sacrifices for their nation,” Mr Sombat said.

“After its establishment, the Party led the Lao people to fight against foreign colonialists for 20 years and won on all battlefields before the achievement of national liberation in 1975.”
Over the past five years, Laos continued to maintain political stability, security and social order, facilitating a fast rate of national development.

In this time, the Lao economy continued to grow by on average 7.9 percent per year and the family poverty rate fell from almost 28 percent in 2002-03 to just over 20 percent in 2009-10.
Other achievements include rice production reaching 2.9 million tonnes per year, 72 percent of households gaining access to electricity and the school enrolment of children aged 6 to 10 years reaching 93 percent.

Mr Sombat said the outstanding achievements have given Lao people reason to place increasing trust in the leadership of the Party in terms of national protection and development.
There are now 14,269 Party units throughout Vientiane and the provinces, with 191,700 Party members. Every year, about 7,641 intellectuals become new Party members.

“Over the past 56 years, our Party has always paid attention to recognising the Marxism-Leninism doctrine and applying it to the development of a political directive to reflect the reality of the country,” Mr Sombat said. Held from March 17-21, the Ninth Party Congress has approved of a resolution stipulating the key goals for the country to achieve in the next five years through a ‘breakthrough step'.

One of the key goals includes economic growth of at least 8 percent per year and annual per capita income of US$1,700.

The goals for 2015 also include rice production of 4.2 million tonnes, tourist arrivals of 2.8 million, family poverty levels of less than 10 percent and 99 percent literacy among people of all ethnic groups aged 15-24 years.