{"id":8757,"date":"2021-01-15T03:32:12","date_gmt":"2021-01-15T03:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=150301"},"modified":"2021-01-15T03:32:12","modified_gmt":"2021-01-15T03:32:12","slug":"lao-pm-sisoulith-set-to-become-ruling-communist-party-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/15\/lao-pm-sisoulith-set-to-become-ruling-communist-party-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Lao PM Sisoulith Set to Become Ruling Communist Party Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"
Laos\u2019 ruling Communist Party is set to elevate Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, a veteran official credited with fighting corruption, to party chief and state president to run the one-party state for five years, according to party voting lists announced Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Soviet-trained Sisoulith, 75, emerged at the top of a list of 71 members of the Lao People\u2019s Revolutionary Party Central Committee Secretariat, while incumbent LPRP chief and Lao President Bounnhang Vorachith was left off the list, indicating his retirement at 83.<\/p>\n
In his speech to the Jan 13-15 congress in Vientiane, Sisoulith took aim at poor financial management, debt and murky business practices in the landlocked country of 7.2 million people that has known only LRPR rule since 1975.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the last five years, the debt has not been successfully tackled. Our financial management has failed. The stability of our currency has been delicate and our foreign currency reserves have been lower than planned,\u201d he told the congress.<\/p>\n