The front page of the Vientiane Times, Friday 11 March, features a story about the donation of money from the Japanese Government to improve the quality of programmes on Lao National Television. In the article the funding was announced at the same time as USD 6 million also from the Japanese for Laos public transportation system.
Japan will give USD 920,000 to Lao National Television in the hope of attracting greater audiences through higher quality programmes. Specifically the Japanese will provide 484 cultural and educational TV programmes to contribute to, “ the improvement of basic education in Laos while promoting better understanding of Japanese culture among the people of Lao PDR.”
In further developments for the media in Laos a new radio and television station has been launched in Luang Prabang. The Wednesday 9th March article states that with support from the Vietnamese government this new station will cover 12 districts in the Province. The television station will have five news broadcasts daily and also receives news from Lao National Television.
In addition to programming in Lao language the article states that in line with the Government’s 5-year development plan the radio and television stations will work to also provide news in the Khmu and Hmong ethnic group languages.
The article also covers the planned naming of 200 model cultural villages in the province. These are part of the government’s attempts to remove Laos from the list of least developed countries by 2020.
