Japanese investors waiting for Lao improvements

Japanese investors waiting for Lao improvements

Japanese investors are calling on the Lao government to continue improving its investment environment and facilities such as infrastructure and human resource development.

According to Pathetlao Newspaper a Japanese official recently noted that Laos has been attracting Japanese companies since 2011 as investors moved their production bases from Thailand to its neighbouring countries.
However, the Japanese official advised the Lao government had to speed up improvements to infrastructure to attract more investors from Japan. Specifically, roads and rail should be upgraded to high quality to connect Thailand’s industrial zones with cities of Laos.
Laos must also supply efficient sustainable energy while its production should be environmentally friendly.
Meanwhile, human resource development is another key sector that Japanese companies are considering investing in across the Mekong region.
“If Laos wants more Japanese investors, the country needs more investment in education, particularly promoting high quality at secondary school, as they will be important in supplying labour to companies,” an official responsible for the area in Laos from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mr Higuchi Hajime explained.
At present, only 60 percent of children in Laos can access education at secondary school; it should be higher than this to drive investor attraction.
While foreign companies investing in Laos’ south have found adequate base abilities at secondary level, knowledge of English language is still lower than neighbouring countries.
Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam have received the positive effects following the Thai floods in 2011, with the Japanese government setting up the Thai+1 policy to move its production to these nations, aimed at reducing the flood risk as well as reducing labour costs.
Japanese government data showed that the number of Japanese visitors to Laos totalled 48,644 in 2013, up from 28,081 in 2009, while the number of major Japanese investors in the country doubled to about 120 in 2014 from the 2012 level.
Japan was ranked sixth for investment in Laos at US$ 483 million, after China, Thailand, Vietnam, Republic of Korea and France, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in 2014.

Japanese officials were recently quoted by Kyodo News as saying that Japan hoped to further promote personnel and economic exchanges with Cambodia and Laos, especially as Japanese investment in the two countries had increased sharply in recent years.

vientiane times