Government meeting for June agree to establish rice bank

(KPL) A monthly government meeting for June held on 24-25 June has discussed and considered a number of hot issues, especially the detail to establish a national rice bank to prevent rice shortages and ensure the demand and rice prices are stable.

The meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh
also heard a number of reports relating to the situations happened during
the past one month. The meeting has heard and agreed to elaborate the
results of visit to foreign countries of President and Prime Minister, which
assigned the ministry of foreign affairs and government secretariat to be
the center for co-ordination with ministries and provincial level.

They also heard the report on implementation of the necessary measures to
manage some goods prices and control the inflation. The meeting said that
since 2008, the world economic has not stable due to the prices of fuel
products, rice and foodstuff which directly affected to the Lao economic,
the inflation rate has increased about 10.32% in May. In order to prevent
the inflation and combat the people who take this time to increase the
prices, the meeting has adopted directions and standard for manage some
goods items and control inflation presented by government secretariat.
The meeting has agreed in detail how to establish a national rice bank,
especially the allocation of fund for the purchase of rice, to improve
state-owned food companies and advise rice milling groups and farmers on
government policy regarding rice stocks, principles, regulations and a
management mechanism for the rice bank They also reached consensus on the
opening door to domestic and foreign investment in rice and cereal crop
cultivation, aiming to improve irrigation systems, production technology and
food processing, and bolster rice stocks.

The session has also heard the report on precautionary plans for natural
disasters and adopted the plans including the preparation of equipment and
staff, disaster warning and co-ordination among the relevant working units
as well as the establishment of disaster fund. They also agreed to formulate
a long term strategy on disaster warnings, prevention methods and rescue
operations.

The meeting also reconsidered raising revenue and expenditure allocation for
the socio-economic development plan 2008-2009 which will be proposed at the
National Assembly's fifth ordinary session of the sixth legislature. They
also considered the draft decree of a policy to support government staff,
soldiers and police officers working in remote areas in hardship conditions.
At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister Bouason has asked all cabinet
members to strengthen their ownership in responsibility for their assigned
works.