Vientiane, 05 July 2018. The 11th Lao Business Forum was held at Donchan Palace Hotel in Vientiane on July 05, 2018 to discuss progress in resolving issues facing the private sector and government plans to improve the business environment.

The half-day meeting, which was co-organized by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, in collaboration with the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LNCCI), drew more than 400 representatives from the private sector, government and development partners. During the meeting, H.E. Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, who co-chaired the Forum with Mrs. Khemmani Pholsena, Minister of Industry and Commerce and Mr. Oudet Souvannavong, LNCCI President, highlighted key Government achievements in maintaining macroeconomic stability, poverty reduction, economic integration, and improving overall environment for doing business.

H.E. Prime Minister also stressed the need to promote private sector development through improving overall legal and regulatory framework for doing business in Laos. “The Government recognizes the importance of the private sector to achieving our social economic development targets, and has decided to leverage public-private dialogue under the Lao Business Forum, to make it an effective tool for identifying and resolving key issues related to the establishment and expansion of business”.

Mrs. Kheammani Pholsena, MOIC Minister, stated that improving laws and regulations is only part of what is required for private enterprise growth, adding that “It is also important to ensure that laws and regulations are effectively implemented at all levels of government. As a public-private dialogue mechanism, the Lao Business Forum will continue to play an important role in monitoring implementation of the legal and regulatory framework.”

Mr. Oudet Souvannavong, President of LNCCI, also acknowledged the important role of the Lao Business Forum in improving the business environment. “Since the success of LBF 10, we can see that public-private dialogue has improved significantly at every level. In particular, the public sector has shown commitments and given attention to resolving issues raised by the private sector.” Since LBF 10 held in March 2017, four priority issues raised were completely resolved, important progress has been made on seven issues. Three groups of issues were raised by the private sector during the Lao Business Forum. Business taxation group, consisting of two issues: value added tax refunds for export producers and excise tax on Internet usage charges; trade facilitation and transportation group, consisting of four issues: lengthy procedures for importing goods and raw materials exempt from customs duties and value added tax under the Investment Promotion Law; import of goods via traditional borders for commercial trade purposes; high costs of transport and logistics; and regulations for obtaining permits for transit transport services; and the last group of issues related to key barriers to sustainable tourism development in Laos.

Relevant government agencies and private sector representatives agreed on number of concrete measures to address all the issues raised at the Forum and following the Forum, the Government is expected to issue detailed instructions to resolve all the issues discussed under the Lao Business Forum dialogue process. The Prime Minister H.E. Thongloun Sisoulith concluded by stating that the government would take all the issues raised at the Forum into consideration and emphasized necessity of continuing this constructive dialogue in the future. The Lao Business Forum was launched in March 2005 as a joint initiative between the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI). The IFC staffed the LBF Secretariat from 2005 until its exit in 2010. Since then, LNCCI performs Secretariat functions for the LBF and is responsible for overall coordination and facilitation. In mid-2015, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MOIC) was assigned to act as coordinating body for the public sector to facilitate dialogue process on behalf of the government by taking over the role from MPI. Since May 2016, the Lao Business Forum has received technical support from the Second Trade Development Facility – TDF II to support the public private dialogue process with a full functional secretariat set up under LNCCI and a Focal Point for the public sector established under the Department of Planning and Cooperation at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce responsible for overall oversight and follow-up.