Building Broad Consensus on Medium Term Trade Related Priorities to Promote Economic Diversification through Reducing Trade Costs and Improved Regulatory Practices

Vientiane, 16 May 2022. Government, private sector, and development partners discussed and validated findings of the second update of the Diagnostic Trade Integration Study and resulting Trade and Private Sector Development Roadmap on May 16.

The half-day meeting, which was organized by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, drew more than 120 representatives from central government, provincial authorities, private sector, and development partners.

During the meeting, H.E. Dr. Khampheng Saysompheng, Minister of Industry and Commerce, who chaired the meeting, spoke about Lao government’s commitments to regional and international economic integration, concrete measures that both public and private sector need to take to take advantage of opportunities and cope with possible challenges associated with fulfilling growing international obligations and increasing competition. “The reliance on natural resources extraction from capital intensive mining and other capital-intensive infrastructure investments propelled the growth rate over the past two decades. However, this resulted in modest job creation and limited poverty reduction. Thus, the Lao PDR DTIS Update (2022) provides an opportunity for the government and the private sector to update the Trade and Private Sector Roadmap, which identifies the trade related priorities that have the potential to maximize poverty reduction, promote sustainable growth and build resilience to grow back post COVID-19, through reducing trade costs and improved regulatory practices.”

Ms. Baiba Zarina, Chargé d’Affaires a.i., the European Union Delegation to Lao PDR, the EIF Donor Facilitator congratulated the government on extensive efforts put into the process of the DTIS Update and reiterated development partners’ commitment to support government’s efforts to improve effectiveness of Aid for Trade program and practical implementation of the Trade and Private Sector Development Roadmap.

Mr. Thanongsinh Kanlagna, Vice President of LNCCI, also acknowledged the importance of the Trade and Private Sector Roadmap resulting from the DTIS Update 2022 in improving the business environment and competitiveness of Lao businesses. “This document and the process behind it have introduced a new approach for the effective and inclusive development of policies and roadmap for Lao PDR. The LNCCI participated directly in the development of this document through the inclusion of key industry representatives on the DTIS team, detailed discussions with our sector associations, as well as the participation of our national institution and each of our provincial members in the various consultation workshops.”

Ms. Ms. Annette Ssemuwemba, Deputy Executive Director of the Enhanced Integrated Framework Secretariat (EIF), WTO congratulated Lao government and MoIC for taking strong ownership in leading the second DTIS Update and formulation of concrete roadmap to make sure broad benefit from trade and private sector development.

A key theme that underpins the whole DTIS validation is the need to build resilience, promote more inclusive growth, and diversify the economy through promoting discovery of new products/services and new markets by making progress on improving the business environment, trade facilitation, investment incentives, regulations and streamlining the institutional framework.

H.E. Dr. Khampheng Saysompheng, Minister of Industry and Commerce concluded the workshop by stating that the government will make sure that necessary resources from public sector as well as development partners will be mobilized to support implementation of the roadmap and he also encouraged active participation of private sector is the implementation of the trade and private sector development roadmap.