Lao People’s Revolutionary Party

Committee for External Relations of the Party Central Committee

Dear Communist and Workers’ Parties of the Solidnet network,

At present, our world is confronting with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID- 19), posing a serious threat to the life and property of humankind, and unprecedentedly causing direct impacts on big and small, developed and developing countries ever seen in decades. COVID-19 was and continues to be a tremendous challenge to the world’s stability and socio¬economic development as many countries have recently witnessed the second wave of the pandemic and an increase in the COVID-19 infected cases, especially in countries in the American and European continents as well as in some Asian countries. Assessing how different governments coping with the COVID-19, we note that on one hand, the outbreak tends to be controlled and calmed down in those countries, whose governments hold the people’s interests at the core and seriously take strict anti-pandemic measures and control. On the other hand, the number of victims of the COVID-19 tends to increasingly rise in the countries, whose governments exploit the outbreak for political gains to engage in the blame game, to the detriment of the people’s lives, in particular the elder population, thus causing social unrest reflecting the underlying problems and fundamental antagonistic elements in some capitalist countries, which have not yet to be resolved and need to be profoundly addressed.

In 2020, although the communist and workers’ parties have not been able to directly mobilize their forces as used to do due to the spread of the COVID-19, they actively carried out the activities in various and appropriate ways, for instance the organizing of small gatherings and photos exhibitions and the issuing of joint statements and reports including contributions by communist and workers’ parties to this special report of the IMCWP to be published in the Solidnet website. All this constitutes as important and meaningful undertakings, contributing to the strengthening of solidarity among and the pursuing of common cause of the communist and workers’ parties, the left and progressive movements in the world.

The communist and workers’ parties, especially in countries, where they are the ruling ones, have gained achievements in various areas, in particular in prevention, containment and control of the spread of the COVID-19 at the national level as well as provision of medical support and assistance, offered to each other at the regional and international levels, hence reflecting the solidarity and the fine spirit of proletarian internationalism of our communist and workers’

parties.

As far as the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) is concerned, in consideration of the outbreak of the disease in 2020, the Party and Government of the Lao PDR have appropriately undertaken activities to celebrate and commemorate the important and meaningful events of the Party and Government, including the 65th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party in March, the 70th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Lao Front for National Development in August, and the 45th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to be celebrated in December this year.

Delivering his remarks at the ceremony in commemoration of the 65th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, Comrade Bounnhang VORACHIT, General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party had highlighted the Party’s development, growth and outstanding achievements gained during the struggle against foreign aggression, for national liberation and conducting the two strategic tasks of national defence and construction, building and developing people’s democratic regime towards socialism. He also stressed out that the Lao PDR has been able to secure political stability and social order, and enjoyed constant socio-economic development, thus upholding the country’s role in the regional and international arena. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party is currently implementing the Resolution of the 10th Party Congress, and also preparing for of the 11th Party Congress in the year 2021. The Party is laying firm foundation for decisive, profound and comprehensive transformation in the years to come, with the aim to reach the set objectives and goals, in particular in realising the 10 Year National Socio-Economic Development Plan (20162025), the Vision 2030, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as in addressing people’s poverty fundamentally so as to graduate the Lao PDR from the Least Developed Countries status in the years to come, and advance the country status towards a higher medium income nation in line with the direction of green and sustainable development by 2030, aiming at building the Lao PDR a strong and prosperous nation where people enjoy a wealthy and happy life and the society enjoys harmony, democracy, justice and civilisation.

Facing with the global spread of the COVID-19, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PRD) is no exception to the pandemic as its adverse impacts on the country’s socio¬economic sectors, including among others, tourism and service have been strongly felt. Since the early stage of the pandemic outbreak, the Central Committee of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and the Government of the Lao PDR have focused on leading, directing-commanding, and guiding all sectors, local authorities and people to pay attention and raise awareness of the pandemic. In this connection, measures on the containment, prevention, control and comprehensive preparedness have been taken and imposed in every single period in order to fight against the COVID-19 and mobilize all people to take part in this anti-pandemic campaign. Since March until now, the country has detected a total of 23 patients contracting the novel coronavirus, of which 22 patients have been recovered. The achievements in the containment of the pandemic outbreak in the Lao PDR could be made possible thanks to: 1. Early Prevention and control measures being taken by the Lao PDR since the start of outbreak, as the country realised the eminent danger of the pandemic and therefore imposed preventative measures as a precaution, as the Lao proverb reads “prevention is better than cure or to nip the fire in the bud”. As such, a series of prevention and control measures have been imposed in each period accordingly; 2. Greater importance having been attached to fighting the pandemic by the country’s highest leadership, which stood united and resolved in providing close and regular guidance to combat the Coronavirus; 3. All Party-State’s organizations, the Lao Front for National Development and mass organizations as well as entire people joined hands to implement the imposition of the government’s prevention and control measures, unanimously and responsibly; 4. The responsible sectors, including pandemic prevention and control taskforce team at different levels, the mass media, the national defense and security forces and healthcare workers at all levels, especially frontline doctors and nurses, have carried out their tasks actively, responsibly and creatively; 5. The timely and effective support and assistance given to us by friendly countries and political parties as well as international organizations, which contributed to the fight against the pandemic in the Lao PDR. Taking this opportunity, the Party and Government of the Lao PDR would like to express their sincere thanks and deep gratitude to all friendly countries over the world in this regard.

Against the backdrop of the second wave of the

82 outbreak, the Party and Government of the Lao PDR will continue to monitor and assess the situation in each period so as to revise prevention and control measures accordingly and appropriately in order to ensure the health and lives of the Lao people, and create enabling environment for citizens and business people to normalise their lives in a new normal as well as resume business operations as soon as possible. As part of their COVID-19 response and recovery measures to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Party and Government of the Lao PDR has implemented relief and recovery policy, for instance taxes and custom, and other charges, a cut to standard interest rate by the Bank of the Lao PDR; a provision of relief and recovery loan credits for businesses for commercial goods; improvement of macroeconomic management to ensure macroeconomic stability and efficiency; and promotion of commercial goods production, domestic tourism and so forth. In the future, regional and international situation will remain complex and unpredictable. In addition, fierce confrontation and competition between major powers as well as severe effects of the COVID-19 outbreak will remain to be the challenges for the communist and workers’ parties, the Left and progressive movements in their undertaking of activities to protect their gains and further the struggle for socialist cause. The communist and workers’ parties, the Left and progressive movements will continue to face with more difficulties, that’s why It is now more important than ever that the communist and workers’ parties, the Left and progressive movements must be resolutely steadfast, mobilize forces, and strengthen their solidarity, coordinate their activities and actions, and mutually exchange lessons in order to further enhance international cooperation in a new normal way. The Lao People’s Revolutionary Party reaffirms its commitment to further closely cooperate with the communist and workers’ parties, the Left and progressive movements in the world in the struggle for the just cause and social progress, for peace, friendship and cooperation for development towards socialism.

Vientiane, 28 September 2020