The Fifth Trade Facilitation Secretariat Meeting was organized on 31st August 2016at Don Chan Palace Hotel and chaired by H. E. Khemmani Pholsena, Minister of Idustry and Commerce, Head of Trade Facilitation Secretariat. The meeting was participated by trade facilitation secretariat (TFS) members from 18 govenment agencies and private sectors.
The meeting was organized for half a day which aims to: (1) report progress of the implementation of the strategic plan for a period of one year and to adopt a strategic plan for second half of 2016; (2) present a revised draft of structure and tasks of TFS that being submitted for approval; (3) present a work plan draft for formulating an action plan of WTO’s Trade Facilitation Agreement.
The meeting reviewed the implementation of the trade facilitation strategic plan in 2011-2015. In 2016 Lao PDR is ranked 134th out of 189 countries for the ease of doing business by the World Bank which moveing up 05 levels compared to 2015. However, when comparing with others ASEAN members, Lao PDR is still behind Vietnam, Cambodia, and other coutries in the region and only ranked better than Myanmar. That is an evaluation from the external views but as for internal views, particulary for Lao private sector, Laos still need to continue facilitating trade especially harmonizing the implemention of trade regulations; improving and systemizing permission system to reduce procedures, increasing transperency and expediting; provide capacity building to government officers on trade facilitation; disseminating trade-related information, and modernising equipments.
Moreover, there was a presentation on the revised draft structure and task of TFS based on a change in the regulations to support TFS and the Degree of the National Steering Committee for Economic Integration, and to include Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) in the work of TFS. The meeting agreed to uphold TFS by emphsising that there shall be close guidance from high ranking officers such as Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister in order to improve and develop trade facilitation timely.
H. E. Khemmani Pholsena stated at the meeting that: “we still need to improve coordination mechanism to exchange information among TFS members, between TFS members and private sectors, and TFS members and local authorities in order to resolve problems of private sector timely. The overall aim is to build trust from private sectors with government agencies on the implementation of state’s laws and government’s policies”.
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