Private enterprise registrations on the rise
Private enterprise registrations on the rise
The number of new businesses in Laos is on the rise, with registered business units going up by five percent compared to the year before.
According to the National Committee for Business D epartment, there are now a total of 97,122 private enterprise business units registere d in Laos, of which 5,474 units just registered last year.
Their combined asset worth is estimated at 98,804 billion kip and they contributed duties totalling 7,690 billion kip into the government budget.
The numbers of foreign labourers working with these private enterprises totalled just over 36,000, out of the 362,000 labourers employed by the enterprises overall.
The committee believed that the numbers of business units to register as members of private enterprise would be greater, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's), and as it turns out they were right.
Many SME's are family businesses, with a large percentage operating in agriculture. The committee noted that enterprises in agricultural produce rose by an average of 3.1 percent while food production expanded by about 5 percent.
To promote private enterprise development, the committee will continue to cooperate with the relevant sectors to seek and improve the relevant regulations and rules.
It needs to strengthen existing business operations so that they can cope with the
competition which is expected with integration while there is a need to ensure a sufficient supply of skilled labour as well.
The committee will also continue to promote private companies to gather as company groups, aiming to boost, knowledge, skills and innovation so that they can compete with foreign companies.
To integrate with the Asean Economic Community, the committee will push the relevant sectors by providing training for business entrepreneurs and organising trade fairs for constant promotion.
The government has set a plan to grow the SME sector in Laos by an average of 15 percent per annum in the years ahead.
vientiane times
