Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized the PRC Meeting for ARISE Plus Laos

Vientiane Capital, in the afternoon of 10 December 2020, The Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MoIC) organized the Project Review Committee (PRC) Meeting for ASEAN Regional Integration Support from the EU (ARISE Plus) project at Landmark Hotel. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Sengphanomchone Inthasane, Deputy Director-General of Department of Planning and Cooperation, Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC) and Mr. Vincent Vire, Head of Cooperation, European Union Delegation to Lao PDR. Thirty-two participants from relevant departments of MoIC and other line ministries, Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, key business Associations and representatives from development partners participated in this meeting.

Mr. Sengphanomchone Inthasane, the chairman of the meeting, highlighted the key purposes of the discussion are to review the performance of the project during the last six months, which underlined on various key achievements of project implementation through during the COVID-19 pandemic situation, and key activities and work plan for the next year 2021. This 2021 work plan will be aimed to get an approval in the Project Executive Committee (PEC) meeting, which is planned to organize in January 2021.

Mr. Vincent Vire, this is his first co-chairing PRC meeting. He emphasized the critical outputs of the project in 2020, including the officially launching the first quality champion program; completing of wood processing and coffee export roadmap; preparing of the foreign trade negotiation roadmap; completing of quality and SPS structure assessment; completing of the assessment of the trade impact for Least Development Country graduation and launching activities related agriculture sectors.

The meeting was given presentations of the progress report of the project during the last six months, highlighted activities on Coffee Export Roadmap of Lao PDR and Quality Champion Programme, and planned activities of 2021.

ARISE Plus Lao PDR (The ASEAN Regional Integration Support from the EU Plus – Lao PDR) main partner is the Ministry of Industry and Commerce through its National Implementation Unit, the Department of Planning and Cooperation. The project aims at promoting inclusive economic growth, increased climate change resilience, mitigation of vulnerability and job creation in Lao PDR.