The benefits of hydropower development in Lao PDR are numerous and far-reaching. Hydropower revenues will reduce the present unsustainable reliance on revenues from logging and exploitation of other forest products and will be a major contributor to the Government's National Growth and Poverty Eradication Strategy.
Expanded GOL revenues from hydropower projects, especially Nam Theun 2, can be employed on:
- expansion of health, education and other social services
- iImprovements in transport, communications, water supply, electrification and other infrastructure
- increasing the resources of GOL's environmental agencies to improve the effectiveness of their protection programs.
Broad improvements in the national economy resulting from stronger national accounts will generate employment opportunities and create wealth. Within depressed rural areas this will reduce dependency on "slash and burn" cultivation, poaching, excessive fishing and other unsustainable practices.
Direct investment by developers in project areas will boost local economies and create employment during construction. A more lasting legacy will be improved local infrastructure and upgraded workforce skills.
The expansion of the country's transmission system will widen the availability of cheap and reliable electricity, stimulating industrialisation in rural areas and improving the quality of life of the populations affected
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