Lao PDR Livable Cities
Country: Laos
City: Luang Prabang, Pakse, Savannakhet
Key Stakeholders and PartnersMinistry of Public Works and Transport; Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning; Asian Development Bank
Project Preparation Study PeriodJuly 2019 – tbd
CDIA SupportUS$ 650,000
Expected Downstream FinancingUS$ 120 million (ADB loan)
Infrastructure sectorsWastewater Management
Solid Waste Management
CDIA priority impact areasClimate Change Mitigation and Adaptation; Environmental Improvement; Good Governance; Poverty Reduction
Key City Development Issues
The Government of Lao PDR recently authorized the upgrade of three provincial capitals to city status in order to advance the administration and prepare the development of these urban areas. CDIA’s technical assistance covers the following ‘elevated’ cities: Kaysone Phomvihane – the capital of Savannakhet Province, Pakse – the capital of Champasack Province, and Luang Prabang – the capital of Luang Prabang Province. All three cities are currently covered under Lao PDR’s 8th Five-Year National Socioeconomic Development Plan (2016–2020) and Urban Development Strategy to 2030, a 10-year national urban sector strategy (2016-2025) which is accompanied by a 4-year investment plan (2017-2020) which serves to operationalize and cost the strategy.
Details of Cooperation
The PPS will address urgent urban development challenges in the three cities and will provide broad technical, environmental, social and economic analysis in investment gaps across pre-identified priority sectors: solid waste management, wastewater management and urban planning/”streetlife” improvements. Furthermore, the PPS will prepare capacity development road maps for each city. Through CDIA’s intervention, the project preparation has been able to proceed much quicker than would otherwise have been the case. Government’s familiarity with CDIA, particularly in the case of Pakse, enabled an excellent working relationship to be established at an early stage
Expected Development Outcomes
The proposed investments are expected to further improve and augment the cities’ locational advantages as key contributors to national growth and as drivers for the achievement of middle-income status for the country. Each city is a hub for its own corridor. The livability investments have been purposefully selected to improve the cities’ economic and environmental resilience, develop their locational competitiveness and foster social and cultural inclusion. Collectively, the selected investments will result in improved livability for the cities. The project will improve environmental and health conditions for urban residents, with special emphasis on poor households, which is about 20% of urban population.
Key City informationLand Area (aggregate): 942 sq. km
Population (aggregate): 294,000 (2015)
City website: n/a
