Minister of Industry and Commerce together with her delegates visits two companies which are supported by BAF II

Vientiane Capital, 30 December 2020, H.E Mrs. Khemmani Pholsena, Minister of Industry and Commerce and Pawarn Farm and Champahom Trade Import and Export Co., Ltd, which are supported by Business Assistance Facility 2 – (BAF II) matching grants is one of the components under the Lao Competitiveness and Trade (LCT) Project. There are more than 30 delegates who are the Director-General of Departments working at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and Director of Industry and Commerce Division from Vientiane Capital and Vientiane Province, and the Trade officers from the Oudomxay Industry and Commerce Department.

The purpose of the visit is to learn about the business in general, the impact of the BAF II matching grants to the business to the participants, and visions of the government on how to support SMEs’ growth in Lao PDR. According to the agenda, all participants visited Pawarn Farm in the morning and Champahorm Trade Import-Export Co., Ltd in the afternoon.

H.E. Mrs. Khemmani Pholsena, Minister of Industry and Commerce, expressed her great gratitude towards the two companies for the warm welcome for the visit and highlighted the support from the government that are currently available. Two main supports are BAF II matching grants, which firms could approach through online and at the office at the Lao National Chamber of Commerce, and the SME loan in 3-5% of Interest, which firms could access through commercial banks that registered with the project supervised by the Ministry. She also provided opportunities for other participants, especially those working closely to the sectors relevant to the business to share their ideas, which would be valuable for the businesses to learn about the government policies and help their business grow.

Ms. Viengsavanh Khammanyvong, the owner of Pawarn farm, provided the brief introduction of her firm that her farm was established in 2016 for the learning purpose in 4,800 square meters. Due to the high demand for organic vegetable and fruit, she decided to expand her farm to a new area in 2017. Her products supply to View Mall, Parkson and other supermarkets downtown. She also shared her experience while applying for BAF II matching grants that she very appreciated with BAF II team members’ service who are very supportive. Since the first process, BAF II helped her when she stepped in their office until the matching grant was approved. The team also followed up with the requested activities. She also expressed her acknowledge to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce which administrates various projects including BAF II.

Ms. Bounhieng Phommexay, the owner of Champahom Trade Import-Export Co., Ltd, also provided her firm with a brief introduction that her business is working with six villages within Vientiane Capital supply paddy for the company’s proprietary processing and production. The company mills dry and packs rice to make sure that the best quality of rice will be delivered to the customer’s hand. She is planning to export her rice, especially European Union countries. She also shared her experience on applying for BAF II matching grants that she is very impressed with the BAF II team members’ service who supported her at the first start from writing an application form for the grants to providing advice on how to grow her business. Therefore, when she finished her first matching grant activities, and she had more idea to develop her products, she did not hesitate to apply for the second one. She also expressed her great gratitude toward each department at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce which has provided her support regarding her business development. She said that she could feel very warm welcome every time when she steps into the Ministry to ask for support.

At the end of the visit, Ms. Viengsavanh and Ms Bounhieng express their acknowledge towards the Ministers and the delegates for their honorable time to visit their business. Meanwhile, H.E. Mrs. Khemmani Pholsena, Minister of Industry and Commerce, again, expressed her gratitude towards the two companies for their warm welcome and took this opportunity to provide wishes for these companies for their great success in the next year to come.

Pawarn Farm, an organic vegetable and fruit farm, applied for the BAF II matching grant in August 2020 requesting for consultancy for surveying and design of the Pawarn Farm. The service included drawing a master plan idea, landscaping idea and architectural concept for the restaurant; and the “Keiei-Juku Program” training course at Laos-Japan Human Resource Development Institute. However, due to the travel restriction because of COVID-19 pandemic, the instructors from Japan could not travel to Lao PDR to provide training, and the virtual training was not successful. Therefore, the farm owner decided to cancel the second activity. Currently, she is gathering the deliverables of the first activity to prepare for reimbursement soon. After the COVID-19 pandemic situation globally is better, and the experts from Japan can travel to Lao PDR to provide training, she plans to re-apply for BAF II matching grant for her remaining activity.

Champahorm Trade Import-Export Co., Ltd, a rice-milling, drying and packing factory, applied the first BAF II matching grants requesting consultancy services to develop her factory, including the Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) certificate, business plan development and factory design. The second BAF II matching grants was on rice packaging design. These two activities were already reimbursed. She is currently planning to apply for the third one, which is about the technical assistance on layout design on expanding her rice mill factory.

Business Assistance Facility (BAF II) matching grants is one of the components under the Lao Competitiveness and Trade (LCT) Project under the supervision of the Department of Planning and Cooperation, Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The BAF II objective is to support private sector companies and SMEs to build their skills and expertise so that they can become locally, regionally and internationally competitive. The objective aligns with the LCT project, a multi-donor project funded by the World Bank Group, Australian Aid, Irish Aid, and USAID that aims to eliminate barriers to private sector-led growth by improving the regulatory environment, lower trade costs and raising firm-level competitiveness. For more information about BAF II, please visit https://www.baflaos.com/en/home