10th RELATED – COMPETE Project Review Committee Meeting

Published by NIU on 28/08/202028/08/2020

On Thursday, August 27th 2020, the 10th RELATED – COMPETE Project Review Committee Meeting was organized at the Settha Palace Hotel in Vientiane Capital. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Phouvieng Phongsa, Director General of the Department of Planning and Cooperation, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and Dr. Christina Seeberg-Elverfeldt, Head of the German Development Cooperation in Lao PDR. It was attended by 45 participants form Lao government and development partners in the areas of trade and private sector development.

The Regional Economic Integration of Laos into ASEAN, Trade and Entrepreneurship Development (RELATED) Project is a bilateral project of the Lao – German Development Cooperation to improve the AEC-related policy framework conditions and the capacities of the business sector for using economic potentials arising from Laos’ integration into the ASEAN Economic Community. The “Promotion of Competitiveness in the context of the Initiative for ASEAN Integration” (COMPETE) Project is a regional project of the ASEAN-German Development Cooperation. Both projects are part of the Trade and Private Sector Development Program of Lao PDR, coordinated by the Department of Planning and Cooperation at MOIC.

The implementation of both projects in the first eight months of 2020 was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures taken in the wake of COVID-19 have helped to prevent the virus from spreading in Laos, but they are associated with considerable negative economic consequences. In addition, due to preventive measures, events had to be postponed or cancelled. Working via distance became the “New Normal”.

Nevertheless, both projects made significant progress during the last months. Important results of the RELATED Project include its work on numerous regulations to facilitate intraregional trade and investments, the support to the launch of the Doing Business Reforms in Laos Action Plan 2020-2022, the assistance to the LNCCI Lao Private Sector Development Strategic Plan 2021–2025, the preparation of the establishment of a provincial SME Service Centre in Savannakhet Province, the organization of pest and disease management training courses for Lao coffee farmers and the extension of a Plastic Free Label for hotels and restaurants in Laos. As the key project of the Lao – German Development Cooperation in the area of Private Sector Development, RELATED also plays an important role to mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Lao businesses.

The COMPETE Project provided very useful guidance to the Lao Competition Commission in fostering a competition culture in general and in effectively enforcing the new competition law in Lao PDR. The Head of German Development Cooperation in Lao PDR, Dr. Christina Seeberg-Elverfeldt, also announced that two more projects of the ASEAN-German Development Cooperation started their activities in Lao PDR, namely “Promotion of Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains in ASEAN (ASEAN AgriTrade)” and “Strengthening Regional Structures for Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion in ASEAN (SME Promotion in ASEAN)”.

In addition, DG Phouvieng also stated that “It is unfortunate that Lao PDR has been included in the list of 25 countries, from which German Government will phase out its direct technical assistance from 2021, nevertheless, for RELATED project, it is necessary for all of us to have an objective assessment of the status of key interventions and come up with clearly defined exit and sustainability strategy, secure strong buy in from all project partners and ensure effective execution of endorsed plans and strategies for the remaining 4 months before the project closure. For COMPETE project, it is important to strike right balance between national needs and regional priorities. Implementation of national level interventions of any regional programs will benefit from seeking strong coordination and complementarity from national level support programs.”

As part of the Reform Strategy BMZ 2030 of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the RELATED Project will be phased out at the end of 2020. Therefore, besides looking back on the activities of the last eight months and approving the work plan for the rest of the year 2020, a particular focus of the Project Review Committee Meeting was to reflect about the exit strategy for the RELATED Project to ensure the sustainability of its results and its impacts, and to continue some of its work streams between Lao government and development partners beyond the end of 2020.

The project Regional Economic Integration of Laos in ASEAN, Trade and Entrepreneurship Development (RELATED) is supported by the government of Germany. The project is established in 2014 and implemented by GIZ. The project aims to supports the Lao Government to successfully develop the AEC-related policy framework conditions in the areas of trade in goods and investment, support LNCCI to develop and provide AEC-related services for the private sector and support competitiveness of AEC-oriented private sector companies.