World Bank Country Manager paid a farewell visit to the Minister of Industry and Commerce

Vientiane Capital, 21 April 2021. Mr. Nicola Pontara, the World Bank Country Manager, paid a farewell visit to the Minister of Industry and Commerce (MOIC) at the Ministry’s building.
Mr. Pontara thanked the Government of Laos and the MOIC for strong partnership and cooperation in promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth in Laos over the past few years, particularly MOIC’s strong role in promoting economic integration and competitiveness of non-resource sectors in Laos.

Mr. Pontara, the World Bank Country Manager, also expressed his confidence that under leadership of H.E. Dr. Khampheng Saysompheng, who just assumed the duty recently, partnership between the World Bank and MOIC will be further strengthened and promoted trade sector, especially MSME to access to finance, technical support on legal reform, trade facilitation, business operation facilitation and support on competitiveness in private sectors in the upcoming year.
In response, H.E. Minister commended the outgoing World Bank Country Manager for a job well-done and thanked him for making important contribution to developing and maintaining a very strong productive relationship between the World Bank and MOIC over the past few years, particularly his role in establishing and administering multi-donor trust fund to support the Lao Competitiveness and Trade (LCT) project, as well as IDA’s support to the MSME Access to Finance Project.

H.E. Minister Saysompheng also assured Mr. Pontara of the readiness of the MOIC to continue to further deepen already strong partnership between the two organizations in further advancing trade and private sector development agenda, which focuses on economic diversification and competitiveness of non-resource sectors in post-COVID-19 recovery.