The industrial investments in Lao PDR included 100% foreign owners, joint venture and domestic investors which were large, medium, small and household factories. The foreign investment of 100% was 354 companies; 2,115 joint ventures and 10,679 domestic owners. The large plants can be calculated as an industrial unit that uses more than 200 horsepower or more than 200 workers (there were 714 factories or 5.43%). The medium factories will have 51 to 200 horsepower or 51 to 200 workers (there were 784 factories or 5.96%). The small factories can be used 10 to 50 horsepower or 10 to 50 workers (6,707 factories or 51.01%) and the household factories were less than 10 horsepower or less than 10 workers (4,943 factories or 37.6%). Among the 18 provinces across the country, there were six main provinces, including Vientiane Capital (2,433 factories), Bolikhamxay (2,237 factories), Khammouane (1,737 factories), Savannakhet (1,682 factories), Vientiane Province (1,119 factories) and Champasak (1,031 factories).
Types of manufacturing and service industries divided into 81 industries, of which the most common types were rice/corn and flour production with 5,757 factories, followed by 826 concrete products and 784 mills.
The total production values more than LAK 25 billion the total sales value was greater than LAK 25 billion, received from the large factories and total sales worth almost LAK 15 billion and LAK 14 billion.
The total workers were 145,400 (91,495 male) with an unpaid workforce. The hiring employee values almost LAK 2 billion (within 118,585 workers) and the welfare of LAK 42 million. For fixed assets management, the total amount was LAK 36 million (the value of land was LAK 7 billion and buildings higher than LAK 9 billion). Furthermore, the purchase of raw materials in supplying to factories was LAK 8 billion, fuel cost more than LAK 9 and electricity cost almost LAK 9 billion.
The Department of Industry and Handicrafts mention that it was a challenge and difficult to collect data that were still inaccessible in many parts of the country, which cannot be fully evaluated by the Lao industry. However, according to available statistic, it was estimated that the large factories that could drive the Lao economy faster than small and household size which cover more than 80% of total factories in the nation. Additionally, there did not have any report of investing in the environment, however, the usage fuel were high, thus, the fossil fuel emissions seem to be high and risk.
Overall, the number of large factories in Lao PDR has been reached only 5% of total factories. The reason is that Lao PDR has been unable to attract large scale investment, which has recently seen the government focus on improving policies to attract large and efficient investments, especially to improve legislation such as the Law on Investment Promotion, the Department of Trade and Industry Law. Although the government has been updated and developed new legislation, statistics have not seen any significant results, which can be interpreted as the government should be exploring and reviewing other policies, as well as measures to improve the investment environment to attract foreign and domestic investors.
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