SMEs maintain socio-economic development
SMEs maintain socio-economic development
The Lao economy is heavily dependent on the family business, but their production techniques are often less than totally efficient leaving them unable to compete in an open trading situation, a senior official said.
“The majority of family businesses are not yet being fully operated under the law on enterprises; however the SME is still considered a key factor in socio-economic development as it covers a large proportion of the national economy,” said the Deputy Director General of the Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Department, Mr Soutchay Sisouvong.
In his opening speech yesterday at a consultancy meeting for the monitoring and evaluation of the development plan for SMEs 2011-15, he said the SME sector contributes greatly to national economic development.
“To promote the growth and strength of these business units to be more competitive and fully operated under the legal process, the department, as a coordinating point, has created the SME development plan for 2011-15, which has already contributed to the seventh Socio-Economic Development Plan of the government,” Mr Soutchay said.
He said the department had already issued two plans for socio economic development, the first plan for the period 2006-10 and the second for 2011-15 with a focus on narrowing the gap in economic development within the region and the integration into the Asean Economic Community by next year.
Representatives of the government bodies, business sectors and technical personnel were also present at the meeting.
The meeting allowed technical personnel from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to present the SME development plans for 2011-15 and it also reviewed the previous monitoring and evaluating report on the SME development plan.
The implementation of the SME development plan is backed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) through the Human Resource Development for a Market Economy programme.
vientiane times
