Vientiane Capital, November 1st, 2022. Businesses in the agricultural sector attended the private sector working group (PSWG), to discuss priority issues facing the sector. The meeting was held at the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LNCCI), under the Lao Business Forum mechanism, supported by Lao Competitiveness and Trade Project (LCT Project).

The meeting was co-chaired by vice president, Mr. Bounleuth Luangpaseuth and board of director of the LNCCI, Mr. Bounthieng Lattanavong. Participants comprised of SMEs and multinational companies in the agricultural sector in Lao PDR. Members of the foreign chambers and international business groups in this sector also participated in this meeting.

The video on Lao Business Forum (LBF) process was presented in the early session of the meeting to demonstrate how private sectors can raise and follow up issues in the LBF process. Furthermore, many participants from various areas of the agricultural business each raised interesting issues relating their business operation. Mr. Bounleuth Luangpaseuth summarized those issues in his concluding remarks before he closed the meeting at 12:00PM.

The eight main issues, discussed are as follows:

1. Technical assistance in the field of agriculture to increase and enhance the yield.
2. Procedures of establishing industry association.
3. Facilitation of import and export procedures for agricultural goods.
4. Establishment of Agriculture Promotion Fund.
5. Facilitation of Import procedures of production inputs for agricultural sector.
6. Mechanism to protect local producers from price war.
7. Access to information relating to agricultural products i.e, import and export.
8. Price protection mechanism on agricultural goods.

These issues are to be prioritized further among the LBF secretariat and the leader of the working group before proceeding to the next stage of the LBF mechanism, Public-Private Consultative Meeting in the following months.