Kick-off Meeting for Promotion of Export Competitiveness in Northern Laos (ECL)

Kick-off Meeting for Promotion of Export Competitiveness in Northern Laos (ECL)

LUANGNAMTHA – 24-25 JUNE 2019 – The Department of Planning and Cooperation, Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC) in collaboration with provincial offices of Industry and Commerce of three northern provinces organized the new project (ECL) kick-off meeting and technical consultation workshops.

The kick-off meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Minister Mr. Somchith Inthamith and Vice Governor of Luangnamtha Province. The meeting and technical workshops were attended by more than 60 participants from relevant public sector agencies from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and three provincial authorities as well as provincial chambers of commerce and private sector from project target sectors, namely handicraft, processors of rice, maize and tea.

In his remarks, Deputy Minister stressed the importance of implementing concrete measures defined under three strategic pillars of National Trade and Private Sector Development Roadmap, namely further deepening of economic integration, continuous improvement of business environment, and enhancing capacity of local enterprises, particularly SMEs. Deputy Minister also highlighted that ECL aims to increase investment in and exports of targeted sectors, leading to sustainably improve incomes of poor households, particularly women in three Northern provinces.

The kick-off meeting also endorsed priorities for the second half of 2019, which followed by three technical workshops to discuss key challenges and opportunities for rice, maize, and tea sectors. The meeting also provided useful information for further fine-tuning project interventions to improve export competitiveness of three target agro products.

ECL Project is funded by the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF). EIF is an Aid for Trade partnership in action for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Operational since 2009, the EIF is a multi-donor program that supports the LDCs to become more active players in the global trading system by helping them tackle supply-side constraints to trade.