Panel Discussion on “Post COVID-19 Recovery Plan for Tourism SMEs” organized at ASEAN Sustainable Tourism Solutions Expo 2020
Vientiane, 6-7 November 2020, The Department of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion (DOSMEP), Ministry of Industry and Commerce, with support from the USAID Lao Business Environment Project provided sponsorship to the ASEAN Sustainable Tourism Solutions Expo (ASTSE) at Crown Plaza Hotel, along with organizing a panel discussion entitled “Post COVID-19 Recovery Plan for Tourism SMEs” on Nov 07 2020. The opening remark for the panel discussion was officially opened by Mr. Sa Siliphong, Deputy Director of DOSMEP, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, followed by the remarks from the representatives from Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.
The objective of the panel discussion workshop is to allow the thinkers of the SME tourism sector to discuss and exchange their views on the concurrent issues, in particular the impact of COVID-19 and how business can move forward in the future.
Participating in the panel discussion were from private sectors such as the representatives from hotel and travel business, and representatives from an exhibition Centre. Furthermore, there were also guest speakers from public sectors, namely DOSMEP and from Tourism Development Organization.
During the one-hour panel discussion, a number of issues were raised. Those issues are the negative impacts of COVID-19 on tourism businesses, increased cooperation between public and private sectors, and strategic tourism promotion plans, such as Lao Thiew Lao or Lao support Lao campaign to promote domestic tourism. This is for the tourism SMEs to be beneficial from on recovering their businesses and continue to operate as usual.
Ms. Lattana Doungboupha, Deputy Director of DOSMEP and Director of SME Promotion Fund, added during the discussion that “Tourism is one of the government priority sectors because this sector has been severely impacted by COVID-19 pandemic. To help SMEs to survive, the government has injected two billion LAK into the SME fund for two purposes namely providing loan to SMEs via commercial banks and the financial institution; and technical assistance to strengthen SMEs capacity. Tourism is also one of the selected sectors with access to this fund”.
The Lao Business Environment (LBE) was funded by USAID. The project provides capacity building and advisory services aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of Lao Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) while improving implementation of trade-related laws, policies and regulation. The project also targets the industry and service sectors with the highest growth and job creation potential
