Lao PDR and ADB: Celebrating 50 Years of Partnership

Over the past 50 years, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have worked to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life in the country. The partnership began to take shape in 1968— less than 2 years after ADB was established, when ADB first extended technical assistance to the Lao PDR to address economic development challenges. Based on mutual trust, the partnership strives to understand and respond to the country’s changing development needs and challenges. In the 1970s through the 1980s, the Lao PDR and ADB focused on infrastructure development, notably in transport, energy, agriculture, and finance. Cooperation broadened to include rural development, social development, and the environment in the 1990s through the 2000s. From 2010 onward, regional cooperation and integration have been further supported. The Lao PDR is making efforts to become eligible to graduate from least developed status by 2020, under the Eighth National Socio-Economic Development Plan, 2016–2020.