Laos Ranks 4th in the List of ASEAN Countries with Most Civil Servants

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Candidates attend civil servant examination.

The Minister of Home Affairs has announced that civil servants in Laos comprise of 2.4% of the country’s population and compared to ASEAN member countries, Laos ranks fourth in the list of countries with the most number of civil servants.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Mr. Thongchan Manixay, said during a press conference that in 2021, Laos had a total of 176,151 civil servants, 83,102 of them were women. Compared to 2020, there has been a decrease of 2,670 people, employed as civil servants.

42% of the total number of civil servants in the country are public school teachers.

There are volunteers who work for the government and earn small stipends, and some of them perform better than civil servants, but can’t become one until they reach the age of 35.

The Home Affairs minister admitted that there are still problems with government offices that are hiring new candidates with corrupt practices in place.

Candidates waiting to attend the civil servant examination at National Assembly in 2020(Photo: Lao National Radio).

He believes that Brunei and Singapore, two ASEAN countries with more civil servants than Laos, both have stronger economies.

For Laos, however, it’s difficult to manage so many civil officials and it is necessary to reduce the overall number of civil servants.

The government has announced that it will not accept contract employees, yet the Ministries of Education and Sports and Ministry of Health have employed subcontractors for international aid programs.

In accordance with official directives, the Ministry of the Home Affairs has joined hands with the two associated ministries to handle the problem of volunteer teachers and doctors in Laos.