APA-Maseru (Lesotho) The ambassador of European Union (EU) to Lesotho, Han Duynhouwer, has commended Lesotho’s progress in its development agenda even though major challenges remain, APA learns at a three-day third joint annual review of the General Budget Support that was held in Maseru on Tuesday.
The annual review is meant to assess the progress in the country’s efforts in reaching development benchmarks in diverse areas such as water supply, education, health and public finance management reform, with the support of World Bank, EU and African Development Bank (AfDB) through the poverty reduction budget support of 2008-2011 to a tune of M420 million.
”It is important for the country to prioritize the spending needs and consider revenue measures, while public finance management reform must have the continued attention of the government as such is a per-condition for budget support,” Duynhouwer said.
The World Bank country Senior Economist, Dr. Ashish Narian said the country has done exceptionally well in promotion of primary education and also the recent increase in enrolment in secondary schools.
He said there has also been significant improvement in access to clean water as well as road maintenance along with improved accountability.
Dr. Narian noted however that health sector, especially on issues of Tuberculosis and support for orphaned and vulnerable children are still huge challenges.
Giving the current situation of the country on macroeconomic prospects, the economist from the Department of Economic Policy in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Senei Letima said the country is at worse scenario.
He said the country faces difficulty in balancing act due to financial crisis since 2008 whose impact was felt more in 2009.
He said the sharp decline of South African Customs Union revenue, decline of diamond prices which led to closure of two mines resulted in retrenchment of mineworkers as well as the stiff competition against Asian countries on textile also contributing in the downfall of the country’s economy.
