Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized ‘Annual Program Executive Committee (PEC) meeting to discuss the TRTA implementation progresses in 2023 and priorities in 2024’
Vientiane Capital, 18 December 2023, Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized ‘Annual Program Executive Committee meeting’ at Crown Plaza Hotel under the chairmanship of H.E. Mr. Malaithong Kommasith, 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 discuss the key results of the two completed projects, namely Promotion of Export in three Northern Region (ECL-EIF Tier II) and the EU funded ARISE Plus Laos Projects, and review and discuss implementation progress for the fiscal year of 2023 and work plans for fiscal year 2024 of the Lao Competitiveness and Trade (LCT), MSME A2F-ESR, Lao Business Environment (LBE), CBI-Home Textile Project in Laos and SUSTOUR projects.
H.E. Mr. Malaithong Kommasith, Minister of Industry and Commerce emphasized 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.”
Discussions in the first session of the meeting focused on key results delivered by the two completed projects and the second session focused on discussing key results delivered during fiscal year 2023 and the priorities for fiscal year 2024 of the five ongoing donor funded projects that are supporting specific interventions in all three key pillar of the Trade and Private Sector Development Roadmap, namely further deepening of economic integration, improving the business enabling environment, and raising firm and sector level competitiveness.
After very interactive discussions on key achievements as well as the implementation challenges encountered during fiscal year 2023 and proposed priorities for fiscal year 2024, the meeting endorsed the proposed priority plans for all five projects presented at the meeting.
H.E. Minister closed the meeting by expressing his appreciation to all development partners for their commitments and support to the Trade and Private Sector Development Agenda in Laos. H.E. Minister also called on all project implementing agencies to make extra efforts to contribute to implementation of the Government’s economic recovery plan through provision of well-designed targeted technical assistance.
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).
