Lao Public, Private Sector, and Development Partners discuss progress of the implementation of the Lao Competitiveness and Trade Project

Vientiane, 11 October 2019. A wrap up meeting to conclude the second semi-annual project implementation support mission took place at MOIC. The meeting was chaired by H.E. Mr. Somchith Inthamith, Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce and attended by representatives from Australia, USA, World Bank and representatives from more than 10 different concerned public sector departments and private sector.

Speaking at the meeting, H.E. Mr. Somchith Inthamith emphasized that the LCT Project is the third phase of multi-donor technical assistance facility that leverage resources and expertise from participating donors to promote economic growth and transformation through creating enabling environment for all businesses, including micro small and women owned businesses as well as provision of targeted technical assistance to improve firm level competitiveness.

Following the opening remarks, Mr. Mombert Hoppe, World Bank Task Team Leader presented key findings/recommendations of the mission, which can be summarized as following.

• Strong implementation progress with nearly all procurement packages completed;
• Focus from now on: supervising technical consultants and obtaining results;
• Requires strong supervision by MOIC and involvement by PMO to garner political support to work across Ministries and levels of administration (in particular with Vientiane Capital);
• Senior MOIC management leadership to allow NIU and IAs monitor workplans, deliverables by consultants, and outcomes; and
• Possibly requires leadership to shift priorities and adjust activities
• The meeting also discussed and agreed a number of key actions concerning all project components to accelerate project implementation, strengthen monitoring and evaluation as well as mainstream gender into project activities.

In his closing remarks, H.E. Deputy Minister of Industry of Commerce said that while acknowledging important progress being made in a number of Pillars/Components, a lot still need to be done in the last quarter of this fiscal year and the next fiscal year to make sure that we are on track of delivering intended outputs/outcomes.

H.E. Deputy Minister closed the meeting by thanking all development partners for their support to trade and private sector development agenda in Laos `I would like to once again thank all Development Partners for the large impacts they have already made in improving competitiveness of the Lao private sector in both domestic and regional markets.

Lao Competitiveness and Trade Project is designed to eliminate barriers to private sector-led growth by improving the regulatory environment, lowering trade costs, and raising firm-level competitiveness. The project is co-financed by Australia, Republic of Ireland, USA, and the World Bank.