Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized the 15th PEC meeting to discuss the TRTA implementation progresses in 2022 and priorities in 2023

Vientiane capital, 7 February 2023, Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized the 15th Program Executive Committee meeting at Crowne Plaza Hotel. The meeting was chaired by H.E. Dr. Manothong Vongsay, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce. More than 80 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 2022 and work plans for fiscal year 2023 of the Lao Competitiveness and Trade (LCT), Promotion of Export in three Northern Region (ECL-EIF Tier II), MSME Access to Finance for Emergency Support and Recovery (MSME A2F-ESR), Lao Business Environment (LBE), ARISE Plus Laos, CBI-Home Textile, Promoting Sustainable Tourism by Integrating MSMEs into Supply Chains and Raising Consumer Awareness (SUSTOUR) Projects.

H.E. Dr. Manothong Vongsay, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce stressed in his opening remarks that “Today’s meeting is indeed a strong testimonial of our joint commitment to the trade and private sector development program in Laos, including its objectives as well as implementation and coordination modality. As you all know, 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 Nineth NSEDP and National Development Agenda”

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

Through active participation of participants from both development partners and national implementing agencies, the meeting was able to draw key lessons learned from 2022 and reach broad consensus on more ambitious work plans for 2023 for all seven projects covered at the meeting. The agreed priorities include priority interventions aimed to further simplify business regulatory procedures, trade facilitation, and enhancing sector and firm level competitiveness. While summarizing key discussion points, H.E. Deputy Minister shared some key principles to ensure effective implementation of TRTA in areas of improving business environment as well as firm level competitiveness.

H.E. Deputy 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 Program Executive Committee (PEC) operates 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 PEC is to provide strategic advice, coordination, common operation 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).