Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized a Wrap-Up meeting for Appraisal Mission of LCT project

Vientiane, 31 May 2021, the Department of Planning and Cooperation (DPC), Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC), organized a virtual meeting to wrap-up the appraisal Mission for additional financing to Lao Competitiveness and Trade (LCT) Project. The Meeting was honorably chaired by H.E. Somchith Inthamith, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce Industry. The representatives from co-financing donors – USAID and Australia’s DFAT, the line ministries, and the private sector also participated in the meeting.

In his opening remarks, H.E. Somchith Inthamith, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce, said that despite enormous challenges posed by ongoing outbreaks of the pandemic in Laos as well as in the region, the mission team and all project implementing agencies and partners had very productive and efficient mission.

World Bank Task Team presented key areas for further support under the additional financing, which include: support to improve legal and regulatory framework in areas of business entry, exit, cross border trade; 2) scaling up business matching grant scheme under Business Assistance Facility; and 3) finally, additional resources will support improvement in inter-agency coordination in implementing policy reforms in areas defined in PM Order No. 02, No.3, WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement, public private dialogue process.

All co-financing donors, including Australia’s DFAT and USAID expressed their strong support to the proposed priority areas as well as implementation arrangement of the project and expressed their confidence that additional resources will enable the Government to mitigate short term impact of the pandemic as well as support sustainable recovery after the pandemic.

In his closing remarks, H.E. Somchith Inthamith expressed his sincere thanks to the World Bank, Irish Aid, DFAT, and USAID for their support and contributions to the Lao Competitiveness and Trade Project.

Lao Competitiveness and Trade (LCT) project is a multi-donor project funded by the World Bank Group, Australian Aid, Irish Aid, and USAID that aims to eliminate the barriers to private sector-led growth by improving the regulatory environment, lowering trade costs and raising firm-level competitiveness.