Pany Yathotou

Pany Yathotou
Yathotou in 2019
Vice President of Laos
Incumbent
Assumed office 22 March 2021 Serving with Bounthong Chitmany
President	Thongloun Sisoulith
Preceded by	Phankham Viphavanh
President of the National Assembly
In office 23 December 2010 – 22 March 2021
Preceded by	Thongsing Thammavong
Succeeded by	Xaysomphone Phomvihane
Personal details
Born	(1951-02-18) 18 February 1951 Samchae Village, Phong District, Xieng Khouang Province, Kingdom of Laos
Nationality	Hmong
Political party	Lao People's Revolutionary Party
Relatives	Ya Tho Thu (father)
Alma mater	General Education Level M.6 Extracurricular Degree Level, Advanced Political Theory Level

Pany Yathotou (Lao: ປານີ ຢາທໍ່ຕູ້; born Xiangkhouang Province, 18 February 1951) is a Laotian politician and member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.

She was the chairwoman and governor of the Bank of the Lao P.D.R., the country's central bank, from 1988 until 1997. Yathotou later became a member of the National Assembly in 1998. She served as the President of the National Assembly of Laos from 2010 to 2021. Yathotou is a member of Laos' Hmong ethnicity. She is the first woman to be elected as Vice President of Laos.

Early life

Yathotou was born on 18 February 1951 in Xiangkhouang Province. Her father, Thao Tou, was a military commander. In 1959, she moved to North Vietnam where she studied primary and secondary school, and in 1975, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in finance from Hanoi.

Political career

After he return to Laos, she joined the Vientiane Foreign Trade Bank in 1976 as the deputy director of the bank's budget department. She later joined the Bank of the Lao P.D.R. and in 1977, she was appointed as the deputy director of the bank's training center and in 1978, appointed as the deputy director of the foreign exchange bureau. In 1979, she joined the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and in 1980, she became the director of the foreign exchange bureau.

From 1982 to 1983, she served as the director of the economic planning bureau and from 1983 to 1985, director of the investment and construction bureau.

In 1986, Yanthou took office as the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Laos and was elected as an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party at the Fourth National Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party held in November of the same year. She was promoted to a member of the Party Central Committee at the Fifth National Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party held in March 199, and served as the governor of the central bank twice from 1988 to 1992 and from 1995 to 1997, after which she became a member of the government.

Yanthou was re-elected as a member of the Party Central Committee at the Sixth National Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party held in March 1996 and at the Seventh National Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party held in March 2001. Her removal as the governor of the central bank is considered to be related to the disagreement between the authorities on the handling of the effects of 1997 Asian Financial Crisis on Laos. On the same year, she was elected as a representative of the Fourth National Congress, and was appointed as a member of the Standing Committee of the National Congress and director of the Nationalities Committee of the National Congress when she became a representative of the National Congress in February 1998. She was successfully re-elected in the congressional representative election in February 2002, and took office and was promoted to the vice chairman of Congress in April of the same year .

In March 2006, the Eighth National Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party was held and she was re-elected as a member of the Party Central Committee, becoming the first female member of the Political Bureau of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and the first Hmong member, ranking eleventh. Her election shows the party's efforts to improve the status of women and promote national integration. In April 2006, she took part in the election of the Sixth National Congress again, and was elected in the provincial constituency of Bolikhamxay. At the same time when she took office as the representative of the Sixth National Congress on June 8 of that year, she was re-elected as vice president of the congress.

In December 2010, Laotian Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh resigned and was replaced by the former chairman of the National Assembly Thongsing Thammavong, and as a result, Yanthou took over the post of President of the National Assembly of Laos. The Tenth Session of the Sixth National Congress of Laos passed the proposal of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on December 23, confirming the appointment. She was also re-elected as a member of the Party Central Committee and a member of the Politburo at the Ninth Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party held in March 2011 and the Tenth Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party in 2016, and was re-elected as the chairman of the National Assembly on 20 April 2016. During the chairmanship of the National Assembly, on 17 May 2014, she and other senior government officials did not get on the An-74 of Lao People's Army because they suddenly changed their plans before the departure and took another plane hence avoiding the ill-fated aircraft which crashed while en route to Xiangkhouang Province, killing 16 of 17 occupants onboard.

She was elected as the vice president of Laos in March 2021 and at the same time stepped down as the chairman of the National Assembly. She was replaced by the former central chairman of the Lao Front for National Development Saysomphone Phomvihane.