A/HRC/41/39/Add.2 activities carried out by companies within their jurisdiction, including by incorporating at the domestic level the due diligence and remedy requirements of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and by ensuring that victims of such extraterritorial harm can seek remedies in their judicial systems and have access to non-judicial mechanisms such as national human rights institutions. VIII. Priority recommendations 90. Of the many recommendations contained in the present report, the Special Rapporteur urges the Government and other stakeholders to prioritize addressing the following issues: (a) Spending on health, education and early child development should be increased significantly and immediately. A first step is to ensure that the target levels stipulated in the annual budget are actually met. Such enhanced spending should also be linked to a major long-term programme to build the human capital that is indispensable if the Lao People’s Democratic Republic is to diversify economically and ensure sustainable and equitable growth; (b) If the benefits of economic growth are to reach the poor, the Government should systematically re-evaluate its strategy for attracting foreign investment. Existing approaches have enriched the elites, done very little for the poor, created minimal employment and brought remarkably few funds into the national budget. Key elements of the strategy should include: (i) A re-evaluation of the hydropower strategy, including a comprehensive and public impact assessment and improved planning for climate change and future disasters; (ii) A thorough review of land concessions granted, the creation of a transparent inventory of all such agreements and the prompt bringing into compliance or termination of improperly executed or corrupt agreements; (iii) Diversification of investment opportunities to emphasize and reward employment creation for Lao people; (iv) An evaluation of the economic, social and environmental impacts of special economic zones; (v) Full disclosure of existing tax and tariff exemptions; (vi) Full disclosure of the extent of public debt, disaggregated by lender, and associated liabilities, including collateral guarantees; (c) Transparency of information is an essential element of good governance and informed policymaking, yet secrecy and opacity are the current default settings. They benefit the elites, facilitate corruption and mismanagement and rob the Lao people of the benefits of their land and natural resources. The Government should adopt and truly implement a comprehensive policy of transparency that includes upto-date social and economic statistics, budgetary information, government debt, hydropower contracts, land concessions and special economic zone arrangements; (d) There are severe deficiencies in the rule of law. There are not enough lawyers, the courts are largely an extension of the Party and the average person faces many barriers to access. One option would be to explore a major reform of village mediation committees to ensure gender equality, procedural fairness and the feasibility of appeals. The crackdown on corruption must cover more than the small fish and include prosecutions of the high-level officials responsible. Merely moving offenders to other jobs sends a message of impunity; (e) An independent monitoring body should be created for the environmental, social and human rights impacts of natural resource-related and other large infrastructure projects, as well as industrial plantations, including for people subject to involuntary resettlement and loss of land; 20