On behalf of the office of the Trade Facilitation Secretariat, the Department of Import and Export, Ministry of Industry and Commerce organized a training session on how to use the Lao PDR Trade Portal on 11-12 December 2013 at the Lao Sumphanh Hall, Xiengkhouang Province. The training was hosted under honorable chairmanship of Mrs. Bansaty Thepphavong, Director General of the Department of Import and Export, Ministry of Industry of Commerce.
There were participants from the public sector (Provincial Department of Industry and Commerce, Customs Office, Provincial Governor Office, Provincial Department of Public Works and Transport, Provincial Department of Public Health, Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry) and the business sector (Chamber of Industry and Commerce and business sectors involved in import-export) from 4 northern provinces, namely Xiengkhouang, Houaphanh, Oudomxay and Xaiyabouly Province.
The objective of this session was to provide training to the public and private sectors on how to use the Lao PDR Trade Portal to access and search for information related to import and export, especially legal and regulatory documents, procedures, forms and other trade related news and information such as: announcements, market access information, etc. in the Lao PDR Trade Portal www.laotradeportal.gov.la , www.laotradeportal.org and www.laotradeportal.com.
This training described useful content such as the history, background and objective of the Lao PDR Trade Portal and also provided a simulation exercise on how to search for information on legal documents, regulations, laws and commodities, general advice and information pages, market access and advice on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) measures, also giving advice on how to register as a member, how to contact and use the feedback form and recommendations. Additionally, the participants were broken into groups for a practice exercise.
The participants expressed their interest and encouragement at the lesson on how to use Lao PDR Trade Portal which was conducted as dynamic group work actively answering their enquiries. The training was successful according to expectations. The organizing of the training on how to access useful information related to import and export through the Lao Trade Portal Website has successfully been completed in 17 provinces around the country. However, there is still demand for continuing such training extensively especially for the business sector. The participants to the training mostly requested to continue the training on how to use Lao PDR trade portal website for each province and district, requesting to include information on trade at provincial level over the country and also advice on advertising the Lao PDR Trade Portal through National Television and radio in order to increase access to this channel of beneficial information for the business sector and the public that have no opportunity to attend this kind of training in order to develop the Lao PDR Trade Portal into a trading tool for creating a transparent and compliant atmosphere for running business in Lao PDR.
Please share your feedback below and help us improve our content.