Fiscal, trade deficits draw attention of Lao lawmakers

Legislators in Laos have called for improved promotion for key industries to deepen the integration of the country's significant subsistence-reliant rural population in the economy while addressing significant fiscal deficit and trade imbalances.

National Assembly (NA) members also called for strict adherence to policies designed to ensure competitive tendering processes and impact assessments for public contracts to ensure value for money and the national interest.

The call comes as the nation's Ministry of Finance revealed a 1. 7 trillion Lao kip (210 million U.S. dollars) budget deficit for the first six months of the 2014-2015 fiscal year in figures tabled to the NA's 9th Ordinary Session.

This followed the revelation of a widening trade imbalance caused by under-performance in exports which amounted to 1.6 billion U.S. dollars for the same six-month period, or some 38.41 percent of the government's annual target.

Meanwhile, burgeoning trade in imported vehicles and fuel helped take total imports for the six months to 2.3 billion U.S. dollars, putting the nation's balance of trade in the red to the tune of 793 million U.S. dollars for the half-year period.

The nation's fiscal outlook has also seen another significant reduction in the number of new state employees hired, down to 5, 000 from more than 10,000 the previous year, bringing the total number of civil servants to 150,000.

The current NA session is scheduled to inspect and debate socio- economic development and budget plans issued by relevant ministries and reporting undertaken by the State Auditing Organization before closing on July 21. Endi