India offers assistance to Laos

11-06-2002, 11:05 AM

India offers assistance to Laos
"Laos...a small country it had a big heart, pointing out that it had
made a contribution of 50,000 US dollars to the Gujarat earthquake
relief fund."

>From A V S Namboodiri DH News Service VIENTIANE, (Laos), Nov 6

India's diplomatic efforts to enhance its relationship with the
Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) gained momentum, with
the visit of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to the Lao capital today and
his 90-minute meeting with the Prime Minister of the Lao People's
Democratic Republic, Mr Bounnhang Vorachil, in which Mr Vajpayee
offered to extend assistance to the country in various areas,
including investment, trade and upgradation of the defence forces.

The two countries signed four agreements which covered these areas
and decided that the mutual engagement at the highest level should
continue. Under the agreements, India would extend a credit line of
10 million US dollars to Laos and waive visa for diplomatic and
official passports. They also included a Memorandum of Understanding
on defence co-operation and an accord on prevention of drug
trafficking. The credit, which has been offered on very soft terms,
will be utilised by Laos to build a power transmission line in the
southern part of the country to export its surplus power to Cambodia.
India has also agreed to supply some computers to Laos to promote
Information Technology (IT) and parachutes for its defence forces.
India will also set up an IT centre in Laos and help the country in
developing a Lao language internet programme. Mr Vajpayee has also
offered to set up a speciality hospital in the country and upgrade
the airport in Vientiane.

The Lao Prime Minister said that Mr Vajpayee's visit to the country,
the first by an Indian Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru's visit
in 1954, sent an important political signal. He also recalled that
India had extended strong support for the country's independence
movement and helped it in the initial years after gaining freedom
from the French rule.

Mr Vajpayee recalled India's historical and cultural links with Laos
and said that though it was a small country it had a big heart,
pointing out that it had made a contribution of 50,000 US dollars to
the Gujarat earthquake relief fund.

India's efforts to improve its ties with Laos has a special
significance because it will be the co-ordinating country for India
in ASEAN from next year. There is a co-ordinating country in ASEAN
for each of its summit partners. Laos will also host the ASEAN summit
of 2004, after next year's summit at Bali in Indonesia.

India has also said that it will help in the ASEAN integration
process, which seeks to improve the economies of the newer members of
the regional grouping.

Laos, which is a landlocked socialist country in South-East Asia, is
a new entrant and has embarked on a course of liberalisation of its
economy in the last few years. The comprehensive economic
restructuring programme, without abandoning the Marxist philosophy,
has helped the country to achieve a high growth rate in the last one
decade.

The Lao Prime Minister hosted a banquet for Mr Vajpayee at Hotel Lao
Plaza where the latter will stay during his three-day State visit.