Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized the 14th PEC meeting to discuss the TRTA implementation progresses in 2021 and priorities in 2022

Vientiane Capital, 14 December 2021, Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized the 14th Program Executive Committee meeting at Crown Plaza Hotel in hybrid format. The meeting was chaired by H.E. PhD. Khampheng Xaysompheng, Minister of Industry and Commerce. More than 100 representatives from relevant development partners, program implementation agencies and implementation partners from public and private sectors participated in this meeting.

The main objectives of this meeting were to review and discuss the implementation progress for the fiscal year of 2021 and work plans for fiscal year 2022 of the Lao Competitiveness and Trade (LCT), Promotion of Export in three Northern Region (ECL-EIF Tier II), MSME A2F-ESR, Lao Business Environment (LBE), CBI-Home Textile Project in Laos and ARISE Plus projects.

H.E. PhD. Khampheng Xaysompheng, Minister of Industry and Commerce stressed in his opening remarks that “Today’s meeting is indeed a strong demonstration of our joint commitment to trade and private sector development in Laos. As you all know that the central role of the private sector in economic development, job creation and the maintenance of social stability has been increasingly recognized and accepted by our government and society at large. Today, private sector development has become an essential component of our national development agenda, including the Ninth National Socio-Economic Development Plan and other sector development for 2021-2025”.

H.E. Minister closed his opening remarks by encouraging all Trade-Related Technical Assistant (TRTA) program to leverage their technical assistance to support the government’s broad economic recovery and diversification policy by enhancing competitiveness of our non-resource economy.

After the opening remarks, the meeting discussed the implementation progress in 2021 and priorities for fiscal year 2022 of all six-trade related technical assistance projects. The individual project presentation was made by project directors from development agencies and government executing agencies.

Through active participation of participants from both development partners and national implementing agencies, the meeting was able to draw key lessons learned from 2021 and reach broad consensus on more ambitious work plans for 2022 for all six projects covered at the meeting. The agreed priorities include priority interventions aimed to further simplify business regulatory procedures, trade facilitation, and enhancing enterprise competitiveness.
While summarizing key discussion points, H.E. Dr. Khampheng Xaysompheng, shared some key principles to ensure effective implementation of TRTA in areas of improving business environment as well as firm level competitiveness.

H.E. Minister closed the meeting by thanking development partners all international and national implementing agencies for their technical and financial support as well as their commitment to trade and private sector development in Laos.
The Project Executive Committee (PEC) will operate within the context of the Trade and Private Sector Working Group (TPSWG). In line with the Paris and Vientiane Declarations on Aid Effectiveness, the mandate of the PCE is to provide strategic advice, coordination, common operating guidelines with regard to the implementation of trade related programs and projects in Lao PDR. In addition, the PEC will provide a forum for transparency, and information exchange in the development and implementation of Trade and PSD related Assistance so called Trade for Development (T4D).