Order on the Management and Resolution of Border Work Between Vientiane Capital, Provinces, and Inter-Provincial Boundaries Nationwide

Article 1

Lao People's Democratic Republic. Peace, Independence, Democracy, Unity, Prosperity. Prime Minister. No. 46/PM. Vientiane Capital, dated 2015 [date incomplete from reading]. Order. On the Management and Resolution of Border Affairs between Vientiane Capital, Provinces and Provinces (Nationwide). To: — The Minister of the Ministry of Home Affairs; — The Governor of Vientiane Capital, the Governors of all provinces nationwide. — Pursuant to the Law on Government, No. 02/NA, dated 6 May 2003; — Pursuant to the Law on Local Administration, No. 03/NA, dated 21 October 2003; — Considering that the implementation of work concerning border areas between provinces nationwide faces many difficulties; — Pursuant to the report of the Ministry of Home Affairs, No. 12/MHA, dated 30 September 2015. Since the liberation of the country in 1975, the Party and Government have paid attention to monitoring the allocation and adjustment of borders between Vientiane Capital, provinces and provinces periodically to align with socio-economic development trends and national defense and security strategies. In 1998, the Prime Minister issued Order No. 27/PM, dated 18 December 1998, on the Resolution of Border Areas between Provinces and Provinces; based on this Order, Vientiane Capital and the provinces sharing borders completed the signing of a memorandum on border areas in 1999. By 2005, after the Law on Local Administration of 2003 was promulgated, which stipulated that the establishment of a province must have a population of more than 100,000 people and have several districts under its jurisdiction, therefore the four southern provinces signed a joint memorandum in 2005, and there was an Order of the Prime Minister No. 16/PM, dated 30 May 2007, on the border areas of the four southern provinces, which defined the transfer of some administrative areas of Champasak, Saravane and Attapeu provinces to be under the jurisdiction of Sekong province. These regulations on border areas have become a solid foundation for the Government and local administrative authorities in planning, conducting administration, socio-economic development and national defense-security, ensuring the management of borders between Vientiane Capital, provinces and provinces nationwide is peaceful and orderly; the people have actively participated in the development of their localities, strictly respecting and implementing the various memoranda. However, due to the increasing socio-economic development within the country, the people have demands for development and improvement of their living standards; the establishment of many new provinces and districts has caused some difficulties in the management and maintenance of borders of each locality, such as: at some points in certain provinces, organizations and people cannot agree on the provincial boundary lines as defined in the memoranda of 1999, 2005 and the Prime Minister's Order of 2007 for the four southern provinces; people from one province have encroached to cut timber and destroy forests in the administrative area of a neighboring province; people have relocated and illegally encroached on land of another province; the expansion of villages encroaching on borders has caused one village to be located in the area of two provinces; organizations and people have conflicts due to insistence on recognizing border changes; people request to relocate to another district or province they find more convenient; people refuse to transfer their household registrations to the district or province where their village is located; after the establishment of new provinces, borders with neighboring provinces have not yet been clearly defined; and others. In order to resolve the various issues mentioned above, as well as to enhance the ownership rights of each locality in effectively maintaining and managing borders within their administrative areas, the Prime Minister hereby issues the following Order: