The Second Project Review Committee Meeting for ARISE Plus Lao PDR Project
Vientiane 16th July 2020: The second Project Review Committee Meeting for ARISE Plus Lao PDR Project held on 16th July 2020 at Landmark Mekong Reverside Hotel, Vientiane Capital and the meeting chaired by Mr. Somchith Inthamith, Deputy Minister of Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MoIC) with the participant of Mr. Bryan Fornari, European Union’s Head of Cooperation and Mr. Xuejun Jiang, Chief of Office for Asia and the Pacific, ITC together with project stakeholers from public and private sectors and development partners.
In the opening session, Mr. Somchith Inthamith emphasized on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on Lao economy and mitigations “In the past few months, our government has adopted a number of measures to contain the spread of the disease, protect vulnerable workers and firms. These measures included unemployment benefits through social security fund, loans at low interest rates, and some tax deferrals. However, we all know that more need to be done to help vulnerable groups of people and businesses”. He take this opportunity to express sincere thanks to EU for its commitments to trade and private sector development in Laos, especially for providing resource to ARISE Plus LAO PDR through ITC, and thanks ITC for its efforts to sharing its rich and diverse expertise in promoting trade and investment, SME competitiveness and export through this project.
The meeting has introduced and reviewed the overall project implementation progress of the past 6 months (January – June 2020), discuss key activities and workplan for the next 6 months until December 2020 by focusing on the results achieved. The meeting is highlighted on Trade Implications of Lao PDR’s Graduation from LDC status, Conformity assessment & linkages with SYMST project and the Wood Processing Export Roadmap.
After discussion among participants on the progress report and work plan, at the end of the meeting the Chair has endorsed the work plan for the next half of 2020 to further implement and to achieve within the time frame.
