Meeting to Review the Consistency of Draft Amendment of Law on Enterprise (Version 2013)

Vientiane Capital, Landmark Mekong Riverside Hotel, 4-6 August 2022, Ministry of Justice in collaboration with Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized a meeting to review the consistency and finalize the Draft Amendment of the Law on Enterprise (Version 2013). The meeting was chaired by Deputy Minister of Justice, H.E. Mr. Kongchi YANGCHUE and over 30 people from relevant agencies attended including: participants from Department of Law of the Ministry of Justice, Department of Enterprise Registration and Management, the Secretariat Committee of the Enterprise Law Amendment, National Assembly, Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Planning and Investment.

In his opening remarks, Deputy Minister Kongchi informed participants of the objective of the meeting that aims at reviewing the consistency of the draft amended of Law on Enterprise (Version 2013) in order to finalize the draft before submitting to the Government for consideration. The review meeting is part of the procedures required by the Law on Law Making. The draft amendment has been revised as follows: 1. Simplification of starting a business procedures by streamlining business incorporation process and introducing online registration system for company registration; 2. Improving provisions on minority shareholders/investors protection; 3. The role of management between the industrial and commercial sectors as the Enterprise Registrar and other sectors; and 4. Other key issues related to Law implementation.

The meeting has continued for 3 days and at the end of the meeting, as a next step priority, the meeting’s chair requested that the Secretariat of the Enterprise Law Amendment Committee addresses all key points made during the meeting and report back to the management of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and resubmit the final draft to the Ministry of Justice for official submission to the Government Office for consideration at its monthly meeting scheduled for end of August 2022.

The meeting was supported by Lao PDR’s Competitiveness and Trade Project (LCT), which is a multi-donor project funded by the World Bank Group, Australian Aid, Irish Aid, and USAID, implemented by the Department of Planning and Cooperation, Ministry of Industry and Commerce. LCT project aims to eliminate the barriers to private sector-led growth by improving the regulatory environment, lowering trade costs and raising firm-level competitiveness.