India offers assistance to Laos

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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.