Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Kanika Phommachanh, the new Permanent Representative of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to the United Nations, today presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Ms. Phommachanh has served as Permanent Representative designate since 29 August 2006, prior to which she was Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1997.  She was previously Minister Counsellor and Charge d’Affaires at her country’s Permanent Mission in New York between 1991 and 1997.

Beginning her diplomatic career in October 1975, Ms. Phommachanh was appointed Private Secretary to the Chief of Cabinet in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  In April 1976, she became a Desk Officer in the Ministry’s Eastern Europe Division, Department of Political Affairs 1 (Socialist Countries), winning promotion in January 1980 to Director of the North America Division, Department of Political Affairs 2 (Non-Socialist Countries), and rising to Deputy Director-General (1982) and then Director-General (1990).

Ms. Phommachanh holds a Bachelor of Arts in English studies from the Université de Montréal (1975) and a Master of Arts in international public policy (1994) from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.

Born on 8 January, 1951 in Champassak, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Ms. Phommachanh is married, with 2 children.

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