The Kingdom of Lesotho is a landlocked country completely surrounded by South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km² in size and has a population of slightly over two million. The country has been supported by the World Bank through the Trade Facilitation Facility developed in the development of the Trade Information Portal of Lesotho which uses the source code of the Lao PDR Trade Portal. The Lao PDR Trade Portal was developed as a user-friendly tool and contains various facilities to assist with searching for information, and it therefore provided a practical solution for the development of the Lesotho Trade Portal. The Lao PDR Trade Portal was officially launched in June 2012 and the portal has helped the country meet the transparency and accessibility commitments necessary to accede to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in February, 2013.
The Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Kingdom of Lesotho asked the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Lao PDR whether Lesotho could use the source code of the Lao PDR Trade Portal in order to create new trade portal for Lesotho. This created the opportunity for technical collaboration between the Industry and Commerce sectors of the two countries. Following that request, the Kingdom of Lesotho and Lao People’s Democratic Republic an signed MOU authorizing the Kingdom of Lesotho to use the source code of the Lao PDR Trade Portal to develop the new Trade Portal of Lesotho.
After the green light was given for the use of the Lao Trade Portal’s source code, the Kingdom of Lesotho has successfully created its new trade portal which was officially launched on 26 March 2014, immediately establishing a new standard in Africa for communication with traders. Currently, Lesotho is the first country in Africa to have a trade portal of that kind.
Information Source: The World Bank's Website and Lesotho Trade Portal Website
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