Lao, Thai officials mull road ahead as trade surges
Lao, Thai officials mull road ahead as trade surges
Trade and investment between Laos and Thailand continues to flourish and a trade meeting was held in Vientiane last week to discuss negotiations towards finding solutions to problems and consider future prospects.
“Last fiscal year (2012-2013), the trade value between our two countries reached about 40.48 trillion kip (US$5.06 billion),” Minister of Industry and Commerce Dr Nam Vinhaket said.
“That was a large increase from fiscal year 2011-2012 when the value of trade was about 17.92 trillion kip (US$2.24 billion),” Dr Nam said at Thursday's meeting of Lao and Thai officials.
Dr Nam said the trade value had increased because of the sharp rise in the demand for goods, both for local supply and export.
Another factor is that Lao and Thai state and private sectors frequently organise seminars on trade and investment promotion. These seminars serve to boost trade and investment cooperation which in turn spurs economic growth.
“The US$5.06 billion figure included an export value of about 10.80 trillion kip (US$1.35 billion) while the import value was about 29.60 trillion kip (US$3.70 billion),” Dr Nam said.
Goods exported by Laos to Thailand are mainly garments, agricultural produce, mining products, and wooden goods, while imports consist mainly of vehicles and construction equipment.
The meeting aimed to further open the door for the state and private sectors of both countries to share information, negotiate, and identify solutions to problems that are hindering the growth of trade cooperation.
Issues discussed included the collection of taxes and duty, labour and business licence registration.
Ambassador of Thailand to Laos Mr Pisanu Chanvitan said many Thai companies and investors want to set up business in Laos but the above-mentioned issues make them reluctant to do so.
“We are ready to encourage investment cooperation in education and the development of skilled labour,” Mr Pisanu said.
Speaking at a previous meeting held in July last year, Dr Nam said Laos was a rapidly developing country and would become a hub for trade, tourism and logistics. He also envisaged Laos as becoming a financial centre in the future.
He said there were many sectors in which the two countries' businesses could cooperate in terms of investment and trade, including investment in shopping centres, vegetable cultivation for supply to Thailand, other forms of food production and logistics.
“Once we have greater cooperation, we will have more advantages and benefits,” Dr Nam said.
Thursday's meeting was attended by officials from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Thai Ambassador to Laos, interested state sectors and businesspeople from the two countries.
The meeting also aimed to enhance the countries' integration into the Asean Economic Community (AEC) when it comes into being in 2015
The AEC will transform Asean into a region with a free flow of goods, services, investment, skilled labour and capital.
In the AEC Blueprint, the Asean member states agreed to reduce tariffs, improve frameworks for trade, better enforce compliance with standards, and progressively open up national service sectors to cross-border supply and foreign investment.
vientiane times
